Living on a Prayer
by Rachelqueen
Summary: Rachel(26) and Angel(14) have been on their own in the apocalypse, since Rachel's fiancé and their older selfish sister ran away. But what happens when they encounter a group? A grouped led by Rick Grimes. What would turn Rachel into the most hated member of the group? What happens when they have an unfriendly family reunion?
1. Chapter 1

"Where are we going?" Angel asked.

We've been driving on the freeway for 2 hours with no destination. We had left Atlanta a month ago. Melissa my sister and Lance my fiancée ran away taking all of our supplies. We were in the middle of a horde of the dead. They drove that way, we drove this way. We haven't heard or seen them since.

"I don't know." I replied honestly. She slumped back into her seat and sighed. I turned to her.

"Where do you wanna go?" I asked.

"Well I want to shower, go to the mall, see my friends which are probably dead," she listed on her fingers. "...I want to see Melissa again too." She replied staring at me.

That didn't answer my question. I don't blame her. I don't know where I want to go either. Somewhere safe maybe? I have no idea. "I want to see other people," she said turning her eyes back to the road. "like living people." She said.

"Don't we all?" I replied. She rolled her eyes. I laughed. "I haven't heard you laugh in a while." She said laughing. I smiled at her. The car started to slow down and my smile quickly faded. I looked to the speed levels. It read a bright red E. "Shit." I said. As the car came to a stop I hit the steering wheel.

"Out of gas?" She asked. I nodded. We sat in silence for a few seconds. "Well let's go I'm not staying in this car all day." Angel said. She unbuckled her seat and got out. I wasn't wearing a seatbelt so I just jumped out. I jogged up next to her. The hot sun was shining on my skin. I already began to sweat. Angel on the other hand looked fine. Angel is all I have left. I really do care about her and I'm very protective over her. She wouldn't have survived this horror if it wasn't for me.

"I'll race you." She said with a smirk. "You're on." I said. I began running. She staggered behind me laughing. I stopped to let her catch up to me. She ran ahead of me and I tried to run the same pace as her. By now we were both laughing and sweaty. " Cool look at that traffic jam." She said pointing forwards. I lifted an eyebrow. "Let's go check it out!" She said running towards the traffic jam. I jogged. When we reached the traffic jam we saw torn up cars stained with blood and debree.

"What do you think happened here?" She asked taking steps forward.

"I don't know." I replied.

I began to hear a faint conversation. I'm fucking crazy. I covered my ears with both of my hands. Angel began running forward. "Where are you going?" I asked, my hands still covering my ears. "I hear something!" She replied. I uncovered my ears. I wasn't the only one. I followed her. We ran into an old man. White hair, thick eyebrows, and a big RV. Another living person? He was about to open his mouth to say something but he was cut off.

"Get under the cars!" A man yelled. I turn and see a man running along the cars, I caught a glimpse of a woman ducking under a car. Angel ran to a car and got under. I got under the car next to hers. There was a little girl with Angel. Even if they've never met, they hugged like sisters. To my surprise there was a little boy here with me. He looked at me with fear.

"Uh it's gonna be okay..." I said to him patting his hair awkwardly. I looked to Angel. She had tears in her eyes. "It's okay." I mouthed to her. She nodded.

They were getting closer. The smell was overwhelming my senses, but their footsteps made my heart pound and I prayed that they would pass and leave us be. I took a deep breath and held the shaking little boy closer when I saw a muddy and tattered shoe make its way into my eye sight. There were so many footsteps.

This is like what happened in Atlanta with my sisters and fiancé. We had been walking around the city looking for supplies when a herd began emerging from all sides. I ran to a car with Angel and my sister ran to another car with my fiancé taking all of our supplies. That was that.

I wish he were here.

I looked to the car to left of mine and saw two women. One with brown hair who was cupping the mouth of a grayish haired woman. She was clearly fighting back sobs.

I saw some with no shoes, others with just one. Blood leaked from some and others had been bit on the leg.

I closed my eyes and took slow breaths through my nose. I needed to calm down. I was letting my fears run away from smell made breathing through my nose almost impossible, but they made almost no sound. Usually they made growling sounds or gurgling, but they were silent. This made me open my eyes.

Not one sound was made. Only the winds howling could be heard. Not one person made effort to get out from under the cars. Smart.

I looked where Angel and the little girl were. They began to get out from under the cars but unluckily they stumbled upon one of them. I heard tiny whines from both of them. My heart began to pound. They got out to the other way and got out if the highway to the sides. "Rachel!" Angel yelled. I got out from under the car as fast as I could. To my surprise there was a man running to her his member to. He looked at me and gave me a confused look. The little girl squealed from the forest they were entering.

"Rachel it's got me!" Angel yelled. I rolled down the hill. Halfway I took out a knife and threw it at the creature. Headshot. The man kept running after the little girl. They went deeper into the forest. When I reached the bottom I hugged Angel.

"Rachel I need to get the little girl!" Angel pleaded. She was sweaty and she had tear stains.

"No the man has her." I said to her.

She cried into my shoulder. I stroked her hair. I looked back up at the highway and saw many more people.

When we got back to the highway Angel was bombed with questions.

"Where is my baby? Why would you leave her?" The grayish haired woman asked. She was crying.

"Carol it's okay rick has her." The brown haired woman recalled. "I'm Lori and this is Carol," Lori said. "Sophia's mother." Lori was holding close the little boy I was under the car with.

"I'm Angel." She said.

"That was some knife throwing skill you got there." Someone said from behind me.

I turned around and saw a blonde woman with a blood stained shirt. "I'm Andrea." She said sticking her hand out.

"I'm Rachel." I said.


	2. Chapter 2

I was sitting in Dales RV. Everybody had introduced themselves except for the men that went with the so called Rick. I looked outside the window and saw Angel talking with Carol. Then Carol actually laughed.

I learned that they called the dead walkers. I learned that the men did the dirty work while the women cleaned. I learned that Carl who was 13 was Lori's and Rick's son and that Sophia the little girl that Angel was under the car with was Carol's daughter. I can't even imagine the pain that woman was going through. I can't imagine if that was me and Angel. I'm glad Angel was making her smile at least. I had to admit that sometimes I hated Angel. She was always favored. By my parents, my sister, my school, my family. Everybody loved her more. I was always considered 'heartless' or 'cold hearted'.

I realized I was making a fist.

Someone walked in the RV. It's was Rick.

I looked at him and immediately turned my attention back to the window.

His heavy footsteps sounded as he walked to the table and sat across from me. I looked at him. We locked eyes.

"Are you armed?" He asked.

I showed him my shotgun which was strapped to my chest and my 4 knives.

"Just that and my little sister Angel the blonde one outside has a pistol and 1 knife." I said.

He nodded. "Did you come from a group?" He asked.

I shook my head. "Just me and Angel," I replied. "I'm Rachel by the way." I finished.

"Well Rachel we are outside discussing our plans to find Sophia," He said. "Are you going to join us?" He asked.

"Alright." I said.

He nodded.

We got up from the table and headed towards the door. He held the door open for me. I blushed a bit hoping it wouldn't show.

"Oh there you are! Come here you have to meet Carl." Angel said pulling my arm.

I pushed her hand away.

"Not now." I said leaning against a car.

"I'm still freaked out by that herd that passed us by, or whatever you'd call it." Andrea said coming up next to me.

"Yeah what was that all of them just marching along like that." Glenn remarked.

"A herd. Sounds just about right." A man said. I hadn't met him before. He gave me a confused look. "Who is uhh this?" He asked.

"That's Rachel and Angel. They're with us now." Andrea said.

"More mouths to feed?" He asked looking at Rick.

"Shane." Lori warned. She looked at him with tension.

"Don't worry uhh Shane we'll carry our own weight around." I said coldly. I crossed my arms.

He rubbed his head.

As Rick started discussing a plan I kinda zoned out. Dale joined the conversation. All I could really think about was the fact that we had a group now. No more depending on me. We had a real living group now. It wasn't a dream this time. _It was real life._ Or was it just a fantasy? Another dream maybe? No this felt to real. _I'm fucking crazy._

I looked forward and saw Carl staring at me. As soon as I looked at him he turned and looked the other way. Aw that's cute. But in this new world, love was the least of my worries.

Angel joined in the conversation.

"Rachel is the best knife thrower I know and she can shoot pretty good too. Cross bow and gun, right Rachel?" Angel said putting me in the spot light. I saw Daryl stiffen when Angel said 'Cross bow'

"Oh yeah. I'm sure I'm alright." I said awkwardly.

"We could use all the help we can get." Dale said.

I woke up the next morning on the back of a truck. That's where I decided to spend my night.

Today we'd be looking for Sophia.

I planned to go solo while everybody else traveled in a group. I worked better alone.

"Are you sure you want to go alone there's room for one more." Lori said while folding clothes.

"Ill be fine. I'm _used_ to going solo." I replied straightening my jacket.

She looked at me. "Alright then." She said giving up.

"Are you leaving already? Have you eaten yet?" Dale asked.

"Half the group is still asleep." T-dog said stroking around his open cut on his wrist.

"Right now finding that little girl is the only thing on my mind," I said to him. "And don't worry Dale I'm taking an apple with me." I said taking an apple out from my jacket pocket.

He smiled.

I passed by Carl who was playing with some tools he had found the previous day. "Don't get bit." He said with a twinkle in his eyes.

I laughed. "I won't I promise." I replied.

I passed by Carol who was sitting on the small fence separating the high way from the forest. She looked like she hasn't slept at all last night. Poor woman. "Thank you." She said looking up at me with a tear stained face.

I nodded.

I had been walking around the forest looking for tracks or anything. I carved an 'R' on every tree I passed so I would know where to go if I got lost.

I wandered around for a few more minutes when I heard it.

It was snarling behind me.

I slowly reached for my knife on my left thigh and picked it up.

I turned and threw it at the walker making contact with its head.

It growled as it fell with a thud.

I went up to the walker and pulled my knife out of its head. I wiped its blood with my jacket.

**BANG**.

A gunshot. It came from less that 3 meters away from me. I ran to where the noise came from and saw a thick man with a rifle.

He gasped. He didn't see me.

He ran forward and I followed him.

He stopped in front of Rick and Shane.

And a bleeding Carl on the floor.


	3. Chapter 3

We were running to the house Otis told us to go to. He said to go find a man named Hershel.

Rick wasn't doing so good. I felt kinda bad for him.

Shane was rubbing his head more than usual.

"He's gonna be fine!" I reassured Rick between breaths.

He kept on running.

##

When we reached the house a brown haired woman with short hair sprang into action.

"Otis what happened?Come on! Dad!" She yelled.

An old man came running out the door.

"Was he bit?" A man asked.

"Shot, by your man." Shane said.

"Otis?" He asked.

"Who the fuck else?" I said. Everyone turned and looked at me. "He said find Hershel." Rick said.

"Is that you? - Help me- Help my boy." Rick said, voice cracking.

"Get him inside- Inside! Patricia, I need my full kit." Hershel said.

"Maggie?"

"Yeah?"

"Painkillers, coagulates- Grab everything. Clean towels, sheets, alcohol." Hershel listed.

"In here." She replied.

They were all moving so fast. Gathering what they needed but at the same time they made sure to be careful with Carl.

"Pillowcase."

"Is-is he alive?" Rick asked.

"Pillowcase, quick." Hershel said.

"Is-is he alive?" Rick asked again.

"Fold it- Make a pad." Hershel continued.

I can't do this. I feel like I'm going to throw up. "Do you have a bathroom?" I asked.

"Yes in the hallway to the left." Maggie I'm guessing was her name informed me. I thanked her and went off. I locked the door. I put both my hands on the opposite sides of the sink. I gagged. No Rachel you can do this calm down. I felt it creeping up my throat. I looked up at the ceiling and closed my eyes. I swallowed.

Better.

I took a deep breath and splashed some cold water on my face.

I could hear them discussing outside.

"...my wife doesn't know.." Rick said.

I felt it again. No no no no...too late.

##

I walked out of the bathroom and headed for the living room.

Rick and Shane were sitting in separate chairs next to each other.

I could swim through the tension in the room.

"Is he alive?" I asked nervously.

"I don't know." Rick replied.

"They went to go get Lori." Shane said.

I nodded.

"He'll pull through. He's a tough kid." Shane says giving Rick a pat on the back.

I slumped back into my seat feeling the unease in my stomach again.

##

Lori had arrived. She was equally as worried about Carl as Rick but she held calmness in her face.

"He won't be able to breath on his own." Hershel said.

"What will it take?" I asked.

"You need a respirator." Hershel said.

"What else?" Rick asked.

"The tube that goes with it, extra surgical supplies, drapes, sutures." Hershel continued.

"If you had all that, you could save him?" Rick asked.

"If I had all that, I could try." Hershel explained.

"Nearest hospital went up in flames a month ago." Patricia said.

"The high school." Maggie said.

"That's what I was thinkin'." Hershel said.

"They set up a FEMA shelter there." Maggie continued.

"They would have everything we need." Hershel said.

"Place was overrun last time I saw it.  
You couldn't get near it- Maybe it's better now." Otis said.

"Doc, why don't you do me a list, draw me a map." Shane said.

"You won't need a map- I'll take you there." Otis said.

"Ain't but five miles." Otis said.

"Otis, no." Patricia said.

"Honey, we don't have time for guesswork and I'm responsible.  
I ain't gonna sit here while this fella takes this on alone, I'll be alright." Otis said.

What a sweet man. A sweet gun shooting man.

"I'm coming too." I stated.

"No Rachel I can't ask you to do that." Lori said.

Just like a mother.

"It's not problem I swear. I'll come back alive." I replied with a smile.

"You sure about this?" Rick asked.

I nodded.

"Okay then it's settled be back as soon as possible." Hershel said.

##

Me, Shane, and Otis were all crammed together in his truck on our way to the high school.

The ride was quiet.

"So did you go to that high school or...?" I asked.

"Yup. Grew up here my whole life." Otis said.

"I see." I said.

I sensed something bad was going to happen. Just somehow this trip would turn fatal. I don't know.

"We're here." Otis explained.

He carefully parked quietly. No doors were open but you could hear the snarling of the walkers surrounding the high school.

"Get out quietly." Shane whispered.

Otis got out through the door on the drivers seat and me and Shane got out through the passengers door. We walked quietly to a fence of bushes covering the school from the sidewalk. We squatted down. Shane and I held our shotguns in aim. Otis held his rifle pointing down.

"So what's the plan? Where are the medical supplies?" I asked turning to Otis.

"In the room over there," he said pointing at a white room surrounded by walkers. "everything we need is in there." He finished. "Alright here's the plan, Rachel and Otis you are going to kill and distract as many walkers as you can while I grab the supplies, then I whilst a signal and we all head back to the car." Shane said turning to us.

"That might just work." Otis said.

I nodded in agreement.

"At the count of three we split up," Shane began. "One...two...three!" Shane yelled whispered.

Me and Otis ran to the opposite side of the medical room and we began shooting and cussing.

"Over here you ugly bitches!" I yelled. I fired at 2 so far, all head shots.

Otis shot several other next to me.

"Here you fucking pieces of shit!" I yelled.

"Calm down with the insults would ya?" Otis retorted back to me. He shot another.

"Sorry." I said. I felt a little embarrassed.

After what seemed like 10 minutes we finally heard the whistle.

"Let's go!" I said.

Me and Otis turned around only to meet more walkers. Too many surrounding the truck.

"Theres no way to the car!" I yelled to Shane.

"Into the school!" He yelled back.

We both ran along the fence of bushes. We made it behind the medical room. In front was the school doors and Shane waiting for us. We ran as fast as we could. Breathing heavily through our mouths. We made it into the school safely.

"Push on the doors!" Shane said.

We pushed with all our might.

Shane grabbed a pole lying on the floor and put it against the school doors.

"That outta keep them for a while c'mon lets go!" Shane said. We were all sweaty and exhausted but we had no choice but to keep running.

"Where to know Otis you know the way!" I yelled to Otis as we ran to no where.

"Yeah the gym! It's here right around the corner! It's the only other exit closest to the truck!" Otis yelled back.

We turned a corner an burst through the gym doors. About 10 feet away from the entrance was another mini group of walkers.

Son of a bitch.

We instinctively ran up on the bleachers. By now it was already night. The moonlight shown directly into the gym through the large windows. The snarling grew.

"Um ok what now?" I asked.

"Okay skinny fellas like you can jump through that window-" I cut him off.

"Jump?" I asked.

"How tall is it?" Shane asked.

"About 20 ft," Otis said. "I'll go through the back door exit." He said.

"You sure?" I asked. I partly yelled due to the snarling of the walkers.

He nodded.

Me and Shane ran across the bleachers to a window. He attempted to open failing the first time.

It opened.

"I'll jump first." He said.

He sat over the positioning himself to jump of a 20 foot window.

He jumped off and landed with a thud.

I heard him whimper in pain.

"You alright?!" I yelled.

"Just fine!" He yelled back "Hurry up!" He yelled.

I looked back and saw a bugger group forming. I gulped.

"Hurry up!" He yelled.

I positioned myself on the ledge and jumped off. I felt a slight pain on my ankle.

Nothing was broken. Thank god.

"C'mon let's go!" He said.

We walked forwards towards the truck when an enormous group of walkers was forming behind us. Shane was walking with a limp on his leg.

"We are so fucked." I said.

We tried to shoot but we were both out of ammo.

"Where the hell is Otis?" Shane asked.

"We'll just have to go without him c'mon!" I said.

We began staggering closer to the truck when we heard a slight yelling behind us. We looked back and saw slowly making his way towards us.

"Wait!" He yelled.

I looked at Shane and he looked at me.

We were both thinking the same thing.

We caught up to Otis. Shane took his gun and shot him in the knee.

Otis dropped down in pain as he held on the Shane's hair. I took the gun and shot Otis's hand.

"C'mon let's go!" I said.

Shane got up and we continued to the truck.

Otis was lying on the floor in pain as walkers surrounded him and began to tear him up.

"Burn in hell!" He yelled at us before his ear piercing screams rang.

Me and Shane got into the truck and sped away from the scene as fast as we could.

##

When we pulled up in the drive way Patricia was eager to ask for Otis.

"Where is he?" She asked shakily.

Me and Shane looked at each other then her.

"Noooooo no." She said while she broke down.

##

We entered through the doors of the Hershel's home sweaty and dirty.

"Here ya go doc." Shane said heading him the supplies.

Everybody was already here.

"Where's Otis?" Maggie asked.

"Gone." I replied.

I began to hear faint tears._ If only they knew._


	4. Chapter 4

_"Mom he asked me to marry him!" I yelled skipping into my kitchen._

_My mother was chopping carrots on and immediately dropped her knife when I announced the news._

_"Sweetie!" She said running over to me to hug me._

_"What?!" My older sister Melissa asked in disbelief._

_"Yup!" I said flashing her a glimpse of my ring._

_She looked at my ring with a disgusted face. She grabbed her phone and went outside._

##

"Rachel are you hurt?" Angel asked coming to my aid.

I could hear the faint crying behind me grow a little louder.

"Fuck off! Nothing happened! Everything's ok! Why do you have to be such a noisy bitch!?" I yelled at Angel turning around.

Shit.

The room grew silent. I felt everybody turn their eyes to me.

I was breathing heavily.

Angels eyes got watery.

She sat back down and began to cry.

"Nice going." A blonde next to her said.

"I'm gonna go take a walk in the woods. I'll be back in a few hours." I said adjusting my shotgun.

And with that I walked right back outside to look for Sophia.

##

Otis' memorial service meant nothing to me. I didn't know him, yet I killed him. I didn't know what kind of damage that would do to his family at the time. Hershel made me feel true emotion, not just sympathy for this man. His people added stones to the mark, one by one, over and over. They turned a simple patch of ground into a place of strength and remembrance. My eyes kept sliding over Patricia's way as Hershel went on. She was doing better than I would have been if I was in her shoes. His words seemed to have a truly calming effect on all gathered around the stones.

"Shane, Rachel." Hershel says, turning to us. I'm more worried about him now than I was last night. I'll have to talk to him when this is over. I need to know if he's okay. "Would you speak for Otis?"

"I'm not good at it." Shane says, his voice so low it was hard to hear over the buzzing of insects and the breeze blowing through the taller grass.

"You two were the last ones with him." Patricia says, her voice breaking. "You shared his final moments." She pauses and breathes in a shaky breath. "Please. I need to hear. I need to know his death had meaning." I look back at Shane. Suddenly I wish I was closer to him. He's standing all alone.

We struggle to begin, but soon we tell his story, the story about how a good man lost his life. Lost in life in order to save Carl's a boy he didn't know. He lost his life to help a man he didn't know. He died so that two people could live. I don't know how well Shane could handle being in someone's debt like this. A debt we could in no way repay.

"He was a good guy and I'm sorry he had to go." I said quickly looking at the floor.

Shane and I start walking towards the stone pile. I didn't notice he was limping that badly before, I hope it's not too serious. "If not for Otis," he says, taking a stone in his hand, holding it tight in his grasp. Everything about him is so odd and unnatural from Shane. But then, nothing like this has ever happened to him before, someone dying for him. "I'd have never made it out alive. And that goes for Carl and Rachel too. It was Otis. He saved us ." He looks at Patricia, I can't see his eyes, but I know his stance, firm and determined. "If any death ever had meaning, it was his." And with that we placed our stones on the top of the marker. The marker for a man I never knew, but we all owed too.

##

After his Otis's memorial we all just kinda went and did our own thing.

Talking on the benches, cooking anything.

I took off my jacket and threw it on the floor.

My arms were exposed in the light sun.

Pfft.

"Hey!" A voice yelled behind me.

I turned around.

"I don't like the way you treat Angel it's mean and hurtful!" The blonde said.

"Beth!" Maggie warned.

"Beth no you can't just come up to my sister and yell at her!" Angel said.

I laughed.

She shoved my shoulder.

"You wanna go there?" I asked.

"You really wanna go there?" I asked stepping forwards.

I shoved her with both my hands. She fell to the floor and I got on top of her. I began punching and scratching and pulling at her. She caught a strand full of my hairs and pulled as tight as she could. I punched one cheek then the other.

We must have been making a lot if noise because we caught attention.

"Rachel stop!" I heard Maggie yell.

I then punched her nose as hard as I could and let me tell you that was gonna leave more than just a small bruise.

Suddenly I felt someone lifting me off Beth.

It was Rick.

"Okay that's enough." He said.

He had his arms wrapped around my waist tightly.

"No let me go!" I said trying to break from his pull.

I saw Beth getting up from the floor bleeding and crying. She ran over to Hershel on the porch.

Rick finally let go off me.

"You attack my daughter again and you're off my property you understand?" He asked me.

I looked at Rick.

"Fuck this." I said.

I picked up my jacket from the floor and heading for the barn.

##

I eventually went back to the front yard and joined everybody else. Not one word was spoken to me.

"You know that well you sent us to?" Dale said coming out of no where.

"There is a walker in it." Dale says.

Glenn runs and gets Lori as Maggie goes and tells Hershel. "Where is Shane?" I ask Dale.

"I think he and Andrea are by the picnic tables. I'll go get them." Soon we're all walking to the well. I can keep up somewhat, but they still beat me there.

"-long enough to grow gills." Andrea says as I finally get close enough to look into the well.

"Uck!" Angel said. The stupid thing is bloated and pale. It doesn't smell as bad as the other ones do, but this one looks more disgusting.

"We can't leave it in there. God knows what it's doing to the water." Lori says. Hershel and Rick are off somewhere, so it's just Shane, Lori, Andrea, Dale, T-Dogg, Angel, Glenn, Maggie, and I.

"We gotta get it out." Shane says, still looking and sounding odd to me, but either no one else notices or cares.

"Put a bullet in its head." T-Dogg says. He sounds very bitter, more so than before. More sleep would probably do him some good.

"No." Maggie says, "No guns."

"Why not? It's a good plan." Glenn argues.

"It's a stupid plan." I say shaking my head. "If it hasn't messed with the water yet, blowing his brains and infected blood all over it will."

"We can't risk making it worse." Shane agrees.

"It has to come out alive, figuratively speaking." T-Dogg groans.

"How are we gonna do that?" Glenn asks. I all but hear everyone turning their heads and looking at Glenn. I close my eyes when I realize what they are planning on doing.

It always was Glenn.

I chuckled.

"Couldn't we just use a piece of meat?" Glenn asked as Shane secured a rope around Glenn's waist.

"There is a reason that the living looted the grocery stores and not the dead." Lori says.

"Animal instinct, living prey is better." Maggie says, standing off to the side, looking over apprehensive over what we were doing,

"Have I told you that I like your new haircut?" Glenn says, sitting on the edge of the well. "You have a nice shaped head."

"Don't worry about it bud." Shane says as Lori hands Glenn a flashlight. "We'll get you out in one piece."

"One living piece." Glenn clarifies, "The living part is important." I was sent off to the side so I would be out of the way.

"You'll be okay Glenn." Angel says as everybody gets in position.

"Nice and slow please." Glenn says, looking nervously into the well below. Maggie says we're crazy and Shane asks if she wants the walker out or not.

They lower Glenn down. I grip my knifes tightly and I feel my nerves jump to life. I was a fan of horror movies when the movie was blood and gore, I know I may seem tough but I could not, however, get through a suspenseful movie. Now I was living one. "You okay?" Maggie yells down.

"Yea I'm good." I hear Glenn say back, and also catch him mumble something, but I have no idea what.

The sound of the rope straining and the growls of the walker make time creep by. Slower and slower it seems to go as Glenn is lowered further and further down.

"A little lower." Maggie's southern draw cuts past the rope, but the growls still reach my ears. Further down he goes. Sweat falls from my brow and slides down my neck.

"A little lower." She says again. The sun feels like it's burning my neck even more.

More growls.

More straining of the rope.

More sweat rolls

Deeper Glenn is sent down

"A little lower."

A metallic sound creeps through the expected sounds, and I scream as the metal pump breaks from its foundation. Glenn's screams echo horrible from the well, he drowns out the walker's grunts and growls. Everyone on the ground scrambles to the base of the well and they all pull. I let go of my knives and grab the rope; I end up in front of Shane. This is one of the hardest things I've even done in my life. Glenn isn't what it making this hard, it's that metal pump. We all pull. T-Dogg is defiantly our leverage as he uses his whole body, crawling backwards. Grunting and groaning seem to fade into Glenn's frantic screams and 'Oh my gods' his call of "Guys get me to hell out of here." seems to help, because we seem to gain ground and soon I see his head pop out of the well. Shane releases the rope and grabs Glenn. Shane basically turns poor Glenn into a football and tosses him out of the well onto the hard, dusty ground.

We all seem to fall on Glenn in relief. "Are you okay" seems to fill the air. I have a grip on his arm and I pull him into a sitting position. Glenn is breathing very heavy and I let him have some air, but I stay very close.

"Back to the drawing board." Dale says. Glenn seems to shake his head, trying to catch his breath.

"Says you." Glenn says, getting to his feet. He hands Dale a rope and walks away. Dale looks confused until he starts getting resistance on his end of the rope. Everyone looks into the well. Gross.

##

Angels P.O.V

I was inside the kitchen with Beth, Lori, Carol and Maggie washing dishes and doing chores.

"I'm sorry about Rachel." I said.

"It's ok." Beth said emotionless.

"She gave you a black eye and a bloody nose." Maggie stated.

Beth shrugged.

"Angel," Lori said. "Tell me about Rachel was she always this way?" She asked.

I dried a plate and put it on the plate holder.

"No. Before all of...this she had a fiancé." I began.

"A fiancé? You mean someone fell for that crazy bitch?" Beth asked.

We laughed.

"She wasn't crazy before. When he asked her to marry him my older sister Melissa who was having an affair with him confessed just days before this happened."

Lori stiffened.

"My parents died as soon as it started along with my family so just me, Melissa, Rachel and Lance her fiancée went on our own. They ditched us and that's when we found you guys." I finished.

Everybody went silent.

"Oh and if you think Rachel's mean you haven't met Melissa." I said laughing.

"Melissa inspired the phrase queen bitch." I said.

"No I think Rachel's got that one pegged." Carol said.

We laughed again.

Talking bad about my sister hurt me inside a bit, and hearing what they had to say about her hurt me even more.

God.

My sister was crazy.

##

Rachel's P.O.V

Nigh fell and there was still no sign of poor Sophia.

I was about 2 am and I was the only one up.

Me and Angel slept on the living room floor in Hershel's home.

Angel was sleeping soundly next to me. The only light showing was the moonlight streaming in from the window.

Everything was peaceful.

I got up and put my boots on.

I opened the door as quietly as I could and went outside.

I gently closed the door.

I look at the bench on the porch and to my surprise Rick was sitting on the bench.

"Hey." I said quietly.

He looked at me.

I went over and sat next to him.

"Why did you attack Beth?" He asked still looking into the field.

"She tried to tell me how to run my family." I said.

"You don't know what it's like Rick. You have your wife your son your best friend," I said. "All I have is Angel." I said.

He didn't respond.

"I wanted to start my own family. I wanted kids," I began. "But my slut sister had to ruin everything." I finished.

There was silence for a few moments.

"Do you think I'm crazy?" I asked.

"No," he said turning to look at me. "But in this world, anybody would lose their mind."


	5. Chapter 5

I woke up to the smell of pancakes. I sprang up from the floor and slid my boots on.

I bolted into the kitchen and saw Lori pouring pancake batter into a pan.

"Good morning." Lori said.

The other ladies mumbled a good morning to me as well.

"Good morning." I replied.

I guess Carol saw me starring at the fresh bake of pancakes because the next thing she said was,

"Take one if you'd like."

I quickly got two off the plate and exited the kitchen.

I went outside and sat on the bench.

The morning air tickled my neck since I came outside without my jacket.

"Where'd you get those?" T-Dog asked with hunger in his voice.

"Inside." I replied.

He went inside the house to get his pancakes.

Moments later the girls all came out through the doors with plates stacked with pancakes.

"Good morning everyone!" Angel said.

They were soon mobbed by the group each trying to her their pancakes.

Hershel staggered up the stairs of the porch and sat down next to me.

"Hello." I said awkwardly.

"Rachel don't get comfortable here, one more incident like that and you're off my property." He said seriously.

"Ok sorry I didn't intend on-" I started but he cut me off.

"That stands for all my daughters. Maggie and Beth." He said.

I don't if it was that because he was old or a father or something but I didn't want to argue with Hershel.

On the yard I saw everybody smiling and socializing with each other.

Fuckers.

Hershel got up and went on the yard to join the others.

I never was one to socialize.

* * *

It was mid day. Daryl went out to look for Sophia on his own a few hours ago.

Something seemed weird between him and Carol.

Ugh love.

Sure even in an apocalypse Id like someone to wake up too.

Someone who can protect me besides myself.

What I had with my ex fiancée Lance was fake.

He'd been banging my older sister for 2 years.

2 mother fucking years.

Fuck them. I hope they died.

_No I don't._

I threw another knife at the tree in frustration.

"You have some skill." Lori said from behind me.

"I'm alright." I replied with a half smile.

"Alright? You kidding me right? You're the knife throwing master." Glenn said.

I laughed.

"She can shoot pretty well too." Angel said.

Beth pfft. She's been following around Angel since we got here.

"Okay then." I said.

"Ok I've always wanted to try this," I said. "I've always wanted to try to shoot off an apple from someone's head." I finished.

"What?" Lori asked.

"Any volunteers?" I asked shyly.

They all turned and looked at Glenn.

It's always Glenn.

"C'mon." He said.

"C'mon you said it yourself I have great skill." I said.

He was about to reply when we heard Andrea yell,

"Walker!" We all immediately ran to the RV where Andrea was at.

"That's not a walker that's d-" I was cut off.

Andrea shot.

She shot Daryl.

"No!" Rick yelled.

"What on earth is going on out here?!" Hershel demands. I strain my eyes to see.

"The son of a bitch shot Daryl!" I yelled.

* * *

Daryl was taken inside and Hershel was already working on his wound.

I don't know what was in me.

I felt rage towards Andrea.

She thinks she's so tough. She thinks she's help to the group.

"Hey you dumbass bitch!" I yelled at her.

"You talking to me?" She asked.

"Who the fuck else?" I asked sarcastically.

"Rachel calm yourself!" Maggie warned.

"No I will not calm myself! This little bitch has been no help at all! All she does is sit on the RV roof getting her tan on!" I yelled.

"And what have you done? You've talked back to your innocent little sister you've-" she was cut off.

I lunges towards her and tackles her to the floor.

She was a lot stronger than Beth was.

She punched me on the nose and grabbed my hair.

I repeatedly punched her cheek and jaw.

I felt myself being pulled off Andrea.

It was Shane this time.

"Alright you've done enough damage." He said.

Dale was quickly by Andrea's side helping her up.

Shane let go off me.

We looked at each other with anger.

Stupid bitch.

* * *

It was already night. I sat alone on the bench again in the middle of the night.

Why was I such a screw up? I need to stop hurting people and taking my anger out on them.

I stretched my arms across the bench and leaned my head to the side.

I let a tear slice my cheek.

I heard footsteps coming up on the porch.

I immediately wiped away the tear with my finger.

It was Rick.

He sat down next to me and didn't say anything.

For a few seconds we sat in silence.

"How's Daryl?" I asked breaking the silence.

"He's ok. Slight concussion." He replied emotionlessly.

There it was again. That silence.

"I'm sorry for attacking Andrea." I said.

"You did what you had to do." He replied.

"No it's just you don't get it. I'm all alone. Fuck I never thought I'd say this bit I miss having a relationship. I miss kissing I miss having someone protect me." I said.

I sighed.

He didn't reply.

I put my hand down on the bench and accidentally brushed his hand.

"Sorry." I said quickly.

"I'm trying to keep this broken group together. I'm doing stuff Rachel, Things. Everybody looks up to me for guidance. For leadership," he said turning to me.

"You think you're the only one with problems?" He asked.

I shook my head.

We locked eyes.

The only noises heard was the wind howling and a few crickets in the distance.

The silence was comfortable.

Should I kiss him?

No Rachel he has a wife.

Oh yeah.

Wait what is he doing.

He's leaning in.

What the fuck.

I leaned in as our lips brushed slightly.

He immediately pulled back.

"I'm sorry." I said shyly.

"No..it was my fault." He replied.

The silence got awkward.

I'm a fucking mess.

* * *

The next day things are a little awkward between me and Rick.

Carl was doing better. He was finally off the bed.

Daryl took his spot.

Shane wanted to start gun training. He wanted everybody to be prepared for anything.

Today we started. He asked me to help him guide the beginners through it.

I agreed.

"Alright all you basic bitches you'll be learning how to shoot a gun properly today got that?" I asked.

"Alright I'll instruct you just make sure nobody ends up shooting themselves got it?" Shane asked me.

I nodded.

As I was walking around I couldn't stop thinking about last night.

I felt something.

It wasn't a feeling to kick the crap out off someone though.

It was...different.

"No Angel you hold the gun like this." I said to Angel who was holding the gun incorrectly.

"Like this." I said grabbing her hands and placing them on the gun.

I looked to the side and saw A group discussing something.

I walked over to them.

"On top of everything else, he lied." Lori says, looking at Carl who sat with his head down.

"What did he do?" I ask, joining the circle of Rick, Shane, and Dale.

"Carl had a gun in his pocket." Rick says, pointing to the gun in Lori's hand.

"What was he even doing with it?" I ask, pulling it from Lori's hands, immediately checking for bullets.

"He wants to learn how to shoot." Shane says, my eyes snap over to him. "He asked me to teach him, but it's your call and I told him that." Shane says in defense when Lori's eye grew wide and angry. "It's none of my business, but I'm happy to do it." Then Rick and Lori went off on whether or not he should learn.

"Guys, regardless of if he learns or not, he lied. He's just a kid. Be his parents and make sure you punish him properly. You two have never been on the same page with him." I say, breaking up their fight.

"Rachel, no offense, but this really doesn't concern you." Rick says, giving me his 'back off' look. I put my hands up and lean against the same tree Dale is.

"He is not mature enough to use a gun." Lori finishes, only to have Carl give his two cents. Saying exactly what he needs to so he can get what he wants.

"Honestly if I was your mom Carl I'd let you, but I'm not so fuck it." I said.

"You're not helping." Lori said.

I shrugged and walked on back to the gun training group.

* * *

After gun training I got something quick to eat and wandered off but no to far.

Maggie was storming up towards Lori, Glenn right on her heels. "We got your stuff!" she yells, I was very confused, Glenn and Maggie just went on a pharmacy run. Lori tells her something, but it only adds to Maggie's anger. "Why, there's nothing to hide!" she says reaching into a bag and tossing everything on the ground. "We got your lotion, your conditioner, your soap opera digest!" I began to make my way towards them.

"-we're not your errand boys!" then Maggie reaches on the ground for something and throws them at Lori's face. "And here's you abortion pills!" then Maggie is gone. Glenn looking apologetically at Lori before chasing after Maggie.

"You're what?" I ask, when Lori turns, tucking the box into her pockets.

* * *

**Omfg Rick and Rachel what. Idk I just didn't want my character to be lonely ha. **


	6. Chapter 6

**This chapter is about 400 million times longer than I intended it to be :&**

* * *

Lori was pregnant, and she didn't even know who the father is.

Whore.

She has to walk around being pregnant making the apocalypse 10 times worse than it should be.

It's the next morning since the day she told me.

We're all eating breakfast in the chilly winds around our sorta camp set.

The camp is quiet. Everyone was off alone. Shane furthest away, which wasn't like him. Andrea was doing sharpening her knife with a cheese cutter , I wanted her to cut herself, but then I stopped that thought. I didn't like her and I was just going to leave it at that. Glenn is pacing around, he still seems jumpy and on edge like yesterday. Dale keeps looking at him, and Glenn keeps looking towards the house. I grab another bite of my left over pancakes when Glenn finally stops moving and clears his throat. "Um….guys…..I….well….the barn is full of walkers."

There was dead silence. Even the crickets stopped on cue. There was no movement. I felt something fall over the camp instantly. My pancake slipped from my fingers to the dirt below. My eyes snapped to the barn that was just down the hill from where we slept.

Shane looked at me first. We made the first move, and the rest followed.

Shane and I were the first to reach the barn. I swallowed. There were just shuffling around, the occasional moan and the sound of them bumping into one another. This place wasn't safe anymore. I felt lost now. I thought we had found a place. I thought this was it. But it wasn't.

I'm sorry Angel.

Shane looked in the barn between the wooden walls. Tension was growing the longer he stood. I looked back and saw Angel behind Dale in fear. Lori and Carl not far off to from behind me. Suddenly Shane storms away from the barn. "You cannot tell me you're alright with this!" he demands to Rick.

"No I'm not." He says as Shane stomps by him.

"But we're guests here. This is not our land." Rick replied.

"Who gives a crap there is more than 15 live walkers in there!" I yelled back.

I see Andrea fold her arms in annoyance and I bite my tongue so I won't say anything I'll regret.

"God, this is our lives, Rick!" Shane yells, causing Glenn to yell at Shane and Andrea to toss in her worthless two cents.

"We can't just sweep this under the rug." Andrea says.

I pfft.

"We have to do something about this Rick. Now we either gotta go in there and clear them out ourselves. Or we gotta go." Shane says, getting back in Rick's line of sight.

"We've been talking about Fort Benning-,"

"That's a death trap Shane. You have no idea how many people lived there." Angel said, stepping around Dale, who immediately gets back in front of her.

"Angel, I know, but those people are gone now. The herds are moving that way, away from Benning."

"But there are thousands of towns beyond Benning. It's not safe that way."

"Well it sure as hell aint safe here." Shane says, his voice getting angry again.

"We can't go Shane." Rick says, something in his voice lets me know that Lori told him about the baby. There was no other explanation for him wanting to stay here. Even I didn't want to stay here now.

"Why!?" Shane demands. "Why can't we go Rick?"

"Because my daughter is still out there." Carol says, stepping up.

"Ok-," Shane stumbles out of pure frustration, "Carol-Okay I-," he raises his hands to his face and rubs his eyes and my heart slows, Shane is ready to give up on Sophia. "I think it's time we all start to just, at least, consider the other possibility."

"Snap back into reality Carol, your daughter is most likely dead. By the looks of her she doesn't look like she's smart enough to survive on her own." I said with a cold laugh.

I heard few surprised gasps.

"Rachel we are not leaving Sophia behind." Rick says, immediately sounding over everyone else's voices in the group. Daryl steps up from behind us and sais, "I'm close to finding this girl." he says to Shane. I move closer to Rick, not liking the openness between me and the barn. "I just found her damn doll two days ago!"

Shane makes a noise like an unbelieving laugh, then he says something I never thought about. "That's just it." He says, laughing at something so horrible I was shocked it came from Shane's mouth. "You found her doll, Daryl, that's what you did. You found a doll . A doll that Sophia carried around with her everywhere! Do you really think she would just drop it!?"

Maybe we would never find her. Shane was right about the doll. In the short time I knew Sophia, she had that doll. Even when her and Angel were running away from the walkers she held on the doll for her dear life.

Daryl now looked extremely pissed. "Man, you don't know what the hell you're talking about!" I've never seen him go off like this before.

"I'm just saying what needs to be said here!" Shane shouts back before Rick jumps between the two.

"- a good lead, it's in the first forty-eight hours –," Shane keeps screaming. Daryl yelling back. I feel my head spin. I didn't like what yelling lead too if people got too heated. Angel walked over next to me

. "—tell you something else!" Shane says, pushing past Rick and getting right into Daryl's face. "If she was alive out there, saw you coming, all methed out with your buck knife and geek ears around your neck, she would run in the other direction!"

That's when it got physical.

Daryl lunges towards Shane. Rick and I try to break them up before someone got seriously hurt. They kept yelling at each other and trying to break our grips on them from tearing each other apart. Rick pulls back Shane and I pulled back Daryl.

They are apart, but Daryl and Shane are still fuming. Shane is stalking around and Daryl is shaking. "Just let me talk to Hershel!" Rick yells at Shane as he starts walking off. Shane turns on Rick so fast I think he's gonna hit him right out.

"What are you gonna figure out Rick!" Lori steps in-between the two, she jabs her finger into Shane's chest.

"Enough!" She screams, for a second I think he is gonna shove her away from him.

"If we're gonna stay," says Rick, This whole situation was making everything worse. "If we're gonna clear this barn, I have to talk him into it. This is his land!"

"Hershel sees those things in there as people." Dale says, this is the first I've heard from him since we got down here. "He sees them as sick people. His wife, his-his stepson!"

"You knew?" Rick and I say in unison sounding surprised. I kept my grip tight on Daryl's arm. He's still mad but is slowly calming down.

"Yesterday. I talked to Hershel." And just like that, Shane is back into it.

"And you waited the night?" Shane says, getting back in Dale's face.

"I thought we could survive one more night! We did!" Dale defends his actions to Shane in a way that reminded me of my father when I defied him. Then he turns back to Rick and sounds more like Dale. "I was waiting till this morning to say something, but Glenn wanted to be the one."

"Ok I thought I was crazy but not even I would keep a barn full of dead people!" I said getting in Rick's face.

The height difference made me feel weak. I was about 5'8

"This man is crazy, Rick." Shane's temper is flaring again. "If Hershel thinks those things are alive or –"

Everyone stops as the sounds of the chain and lock rattle and bounce off the wooden door. Lori retreats back to Carl and Rick plants himself right in front of me. I cringe as pale fingers slide between the wooden planks.

Angel gasped and put her hand over her mouth.

There moans reinstalling the fear I had temporarily forgotten. Silence passes through the group as the moans and growls grow louder.

* * *

I paced around on the front yard in frustration.

This was fucking ridiculous.

How could Dale not have said anything!

I mean I'm glad we know now but if Glenn hadn't known when would he have told us?

It's things like this that pissed the hell out of me.

I felt like kicking the crap out of the next person that talked to m-

"Rachel can we talk?" Angel asked.

With the exception of Angel.

"What's up?" I asked.

What's so damn important?

"Ok so first thing is I love you so much but you've been acting kinda crazy and weird lately is there something wrong?"

Yes.

"No everything's fine," I said.  
"I just miss Lance a lot." I lied.

"Even after...him and Melissa?" She asked.

I didn't respond.

We starred at each other for a few seconds.

She pulled me in for a tight hug.

"You're my sister Angel, I will never let anything hurt you." I said.

I felt her nod.

I wasn't lying that time.

I wouldn't be able to live without her.

But I felt it coming.

* * *

"77,78,79..." I had to count to 100.

I was playing hide and go seek with Carl and Angel.

As much as I didn't want to, they talked me into it somehow.

"90,91,92..." I was almost finished.

I wasn't in the mood to go out into the woods today so I decided to play with the kids.

"98,99, 1 fucking hundred!" I yelled.

"Ready or not here I come!" I yelled. I turned around from the side of Hershel's house and began scavenging.

Glenn and Maggie were sitting in the porch chairs talking and laughing.

Ugh love.

I heard some giggling on my left side.

I saw a little patch of blonde hair hiding behind the tree.

Angel was the only one of us that came out blonde.

Melissa and I both came out brunettes.

I ran behind the tree and Angel began running to base.

"Got you!" I yelled as I tagged Angels arm.

She was laughing as she stopped running.

"Now where's Carl?" I asked.

She was laughing while shaking her head.

I turned around saw Carl right behind. I ran towards him but he ran in the other direction.

From the porch I saw a smiling Lori watching us play.

I stopped and waved a hello at her.

Suddenly I was tackled to the floor by Carl and Angel.

We were all laughing on the fresh green grass.

I haven't felt this happy since I was asked to become a wife.

* * *

It's the next day and I'm just sitting around practicing knife maneuvers when I hear T-Dogg speak, and when I see what he's pointing at. I see Rick, Hershel, and Jimmy. But that wasn't all. They had walkers on dog leashes. The professional ones. And they are leading them around.

What the fuck?

Shane runs faster than I've ever seen him down the hill, it takes me half a second d before I take off after him. He's going to make everything worse. Just like he always did.

The walkers are growling, Hershel is yelling, Rick is screaming, and Shane is circling around them, over and over, yelling everything he has probably wanted to say for a long time. Yelling at Rick, Yelling at Hershel. He keeps screaming. I'm yelling at them.

It's a freaking scream match.

"Hey, Hershel, man, let me ask you something. Can a living breathing person, could they walk away from this?" Shane asks as he shoots the walker Hershel is leading around in the chest. The gunshot rips through the air and the walker.

Rick yells at Shane to stop, but he keeps going. "That's three rounds in the chest. Could someone who's alive, can they just take that? Why is it still coming!?" Shane shoots walker again.

It howls and thrashes around with each shot. "That's its heart, its lungs. Why is it still coming!?" Shane demands, shooting the walker again for good measure.

"And let's not forget the neck!" I yell as I shoot at the walkers neck.

It still hasn't died. Again anyways.

"Shane, Rachel enough!" Rick screams. Shane nods before moving forward.

"Yeah, you're right, man. That is enough." Then he shoots walker in the head.

That final shot ends it all, the walker, the yelling, and any chance we had of staying here on the farm. The walker goes down and I think I see something in Hershel break. He follows the walker to the ground. Everyone else is done. Everyone but Shane and I.

We've had enough of this bullshit.

"Enough! Risking our lives for a little girl who's gone!" Shane is pacing around, looking everyone in the group in the eye, almost challenging us to move against him.

"Carol I'm sorry to tell you this but your daughter is gone! She's dead! She's as dead as that barn full of walkers! This is all a bunch of bull crap why are those things in there still alive!?" I yell.

"_I'm tired of feeling like I'm fucking crazy!_" I yell in anger.

Nobody moves.

"Alright then I'll open up this shit barn myself! Shane are you in?!" I ask.

"Let's take it down." He replied.

We turn and make our way towards the barn before turning back around and addressing the group. "Now if y'all wanna live, if you wanna survive, you gotta fightfor it! I'm talking 'bout fighting! Right here . . . right now!" Then he runs towards the barn.

Here it goes.

Everyone is screaming at or towards us. Hershel is still on the ground; Rick is trying to get him to take the walker he's holding. Lori orders Carl to stand behind her.

I point my gun at the barn and shoot making directly contact with the lock.

It opened.

Emotions are everywhere. I can't even comprehend what I'm feeling. Shane lifts up the board lock and bangs on the door before running back towards the group.

I on the other hand stay directly in front of the doors if the barn.

"Rachel get over here!" I hear someone say.

"Fuck off." I reply to whoever it was.

The doors open and very slowly a walker comes out. It has no hair; it's in overalls, blood around its mouth, a dirty shirt that must have been white when it died. It looks almost excited to be free.

I shot it dead.

Straight in the face. Then more and more come out and I back up and join the group.

I stand frozen. Lori and holding Carl back. Rick is just standing like I am, holding the walker on the pole. More and more shots and more and more walkers to down. Daryl is shooting a gun, something I've never seen him use. I wished I never had.

More walkers come out and they all go down.

One by one they come out and they're shot dead.

It was like a never ending string of walkers inside the barn.

There are dozens of bodies littering the ground in front of the barn. I catch Dale coming up out of the corner of my eye. I can't read his face. I can't read anyone's face. Sounds of crying fill the air, it has to be Beth.

Whiny ass bitch.

Stop Rachel. She's just lost somebody.

How would you feel if you lost Angel?

I walk forward and place a hand on Daryl's shoulder. He lowers his gun and looks at me. It was done. Now what were we going to do? It wasn't safe any-

A low growl catches my ear, and everyone else's. Daryl pushes me back and they all raise there guns again. I stare at the door. Not seeing anything. Maybe it was one of the ones of the ground. Maybe one wasn't dead. Everyone stares at the barn. We all hear it again. Something moves against the door before it walks from the dark barn.

Nobody moves. But everyone reacts.

Sophia.

Sweet little Sophia is walking out of that barn. Her eyes aren't blue anymore, her hair isn't smooth anymore, her skin isn't tan anymore. This things walking towards us can't be Sophia, it has to be something else. Carol runs towards her, bumping me on my shoulder.

Daryl intercepts her and pulls her to the ground. I pull my eyes from the sight. I can't look at her. I look at Shane. It was his fault.

_Our_ fault.

I wanted to throw something at him. He always said someone had to make the hard decisions, so why wasn't he shooting Sophia?

Why was Rick slowly walking up to her if he couldn't make the hard decisions? Rick holds his gun up, he takes aim, I see him steel his shoulders before he pulls the trigger. As Sophia falls to the ground, so does the last of my hope for myself.

_I was no longer sane at that moment_.


	7. Chapter 7

We all just stand in silence.

We had been looking for Sophia for days.

Daryl almost fucking died.

And to think she's been here the entire damn time.

Some leave some stay.

Beth's cry grow louder as she walks into the piles of dead walkers on the floor.

She picks up a specific one and croaks out,

"Mommy..." She says.

Suddenly the walker comes alive and tries to grab her arm.

Beth screams in fear as everybody tries to pull her off the walker.

Everybody but me.

T-dog kicks its head.

I take my gun out and shoot at the head.

Everybody turns and looks at me.

"Problem solved." I said.

"Oh and Beth shut the fuck up before I shove a brick down your throat and give you a real reason to cry." I said coldly.

"You are a _horrible_ person!" She yells back.

"Are you just know realizing that?" I ask with a chuckle.

* * *

We were walking back to the farm.

"We've been out looking in these woods and she was in there all along!" Shane yells.

Rick taps him on the shoulder.

"Get your hands off me!" He yells at Rick.

"You knew it and you kept it from us!" He continues yelling.

"I didn't know." Hershel replies.

"That's bullshit I think you all knew!" Shane said.

"We didn't know!" Maggie yells back.

"Why was she there?" Shane asks.

"You know Otis put the walkers in the barn." Hershel replied.

By now we were already at the porch.

I kept quiet. I've done enough.

They began arguing and me and Rick pull them apart.

"Everybody just calm down." Rick sais calmly.

"Get him off my land!" Hershel yells.

"Now let me tell you something old man-" Shane says heading towards Hershel.

Before Shane tries anything Maggie slaps his arm.

"Don't touch him!" She yells in his face.

Glenn comes in between both of them and pulls them apart.

"Haven't you done enough?" Maggie said.

She walks up the porch and goes inside the house.

Hershel is leaning on the door and says,

"I mean it, off my land."

* * *

The wind was howling yet it wasn't as cold.

I sat under the tree and sulked.

One part off me was relieved that we knew what had gone down with Sophia but the other part off me wish I hadn't done what I did.

Everybody hates me.

Angel came to complain to me and asked me why I don't come hang out with her and the ladies.

I just replied with a laugh and walked away.

Beth was right though. I was a horrible person. I have done some pretty bat shit crazy things in my lifetime that I'm not so proud of.

I walk into the house and see Glenn kidding Maggie on the forehead.

Ew love.

Shut up Rachel you know you want that.

I smiled at them and walked back outside.

I looked over at the barn where we all were an hour ago and saw a part of the group.

Lori, Shane, Rick, T-dog, and Andrea.

I decided to join them and see what they were taking about.

I needed to clear my mind.

* * *

By the time I reached them I caught part of their conversation.

"...Carol would want that." Andrea said.

"Want what?" I asked.

"A memorial service for what you did did!" Andrea said.

"You better be there," she said.

She got up in face but me being taller than her made her look weaker.

"This was all you. You opened the goddamn lock." She said.

"You owe them." She finished.

I bit my lower lip in frustration.

It took all I had not to fight back.

"I'll be there," I said.

I looked at Rick and Lori.

"And you should try this thing called mouth wash." I said as I turned around.

I heard T-dog trying to cover his laugh.

"You evil cold hearted bitch." Andrea said from behind me.

"What heart?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

* * *

I walked back to my tree and just sat down again.

Who does she think she is?

She's basically asking me to kick her ass again.

Maybe I should.

That outta teach that bitch to back the fuck off.

I looked back over at the barn and saw Rick and Lori talking.

Probably about the baby or something else I could give less crap off.

Fuck Shane's child.

Rachel stop.

I see Carl walking from the pathway up to the the front yard.

He's coming towards me.

"Hey." He sais.

"Hi." I replied.

There was an awkward silence.

"So...what did you think about finding Sophia?" He asked.

"I don't know. I was as equally shocked as everybody else." I replied flatly.

He nods.

"My mom talks about you a lot." He said.

Oh great.

"Oh...what does she say about me?" I asked nervously.

I honestly really did not want to hear the answer.

Why did I even ask?

"She said that she's scared you might end up killing someone or...yourself." He replied.

I laughed.

"C'mon you know I wouldn't hurt anybody." I said ruffling his hair.

He laughed.

"My dad doesn't want you to leave, he said you're a really good addition to the group." He said.

I smiled.

"You know if you really wanted to learn how to use a gun. ..I could teach you," I said.

"Just don't tell your mom." I said with a light chuckle.

"Really?" He asked excitedly.

I nodded.

He hugged me.

How do I respond to that.

You hug back dumbass.

I hugged him back.

"I want you to be my mom." He said.

What the fuck.

Now that was weird.

I awkwardly laughed.

"No you don't, I may not be a killer but I'm pretty fucking crazy." I said.

We saw Rick and Lori coming up the pathway.

"Carl get over here." Lori said.

Carl looked up at me smiled.

He ran over to Lori and they both went inside the house.

Rick came over to me.

"Hershel wants us off his land." He said.

Shit.

"Why? I mean I know we kinda killed his family but damn." I said.

Silence.

"So I heard Lori was pregnant." I said emotionlessly.

He looked at me.

"I hope you guys live a happily ever after." I said with a smile.

He laughed.

More fucking silence.

"So um about the other night?" I asked nervously.

"I see it now as a mistake and I can reassure you it won't happen again Rachel." He said.

I nod.

I'm a fucking mistake. Out of all the times I've gotten that phrase _'You're a mistake!' _This one hurt the most.

Thanks Rick.

* * *

Hershel is in his room sitting on the side of the bed just starring at the floor.

My plan was to go in talk to him convince him not to kick us out and leave.

I took the a deep breath and I pushed the door gently and walked in.

He must've heard my footsteps because he look up from the floor and starred at me.

"What can I help you with Rachel?" He asked softly.

He sounded really hurt.

Fucking Shane.

Oh and me too.

"Rick told me you wanted us off your land." I said.

"At least Shane." He replied.

"I'm so sorry. Ok I really am and if I could go back-" he cut me off.

"You did what you had to do," he said.

"There really is no cure. You don't go back once you turn." He said.

I stayed quiet.

He put brown paper bags on his bed and began filling them with clothes.

Woman's clothes.

"Get all of the women's clothes and out them in these bags." He said.

I walked over to his closet and took a few lace shirts off hangers and stuffed them in the brown papered bags.

I had no idea why he had asked me to do it but he's kinda going through a rough time right now.

The least I could do was help him with laundry or whatever this was.

I looked towards Hershel and saw him take out a silver canteen.

* * *

We ended up at the town bar drinking up our sorrows.

The bar was dark and kinda gloomy. Cracked windows and dirty tables.

It had stools to sit on and old style doors.

We we were the only ones in the bar obviously.

Hershel took a swig at his drink and placed the cup back on the counter.

"Why did you bring me here?" I asked.

"For protection." He replied.

He got the bottle of liquor and poured himself more alcohol.

"So I'm like your bodyguard from the walkers?" I asked with a light chuckle.

He nodded.

We stayed in silence for a few seconds.

"Do you miss her?" I asked.

"Everyday." He replied.

"When she turned I told myself that there was a cure. That she wouldn't be like this forever," He said.

I chugged down my tall glass of beer.

"I had hope in her, in all of them." He said.

"Where is that hope now?" I asked.

"Gone. As gone as all of them." He said.

"She's in a better place now." I said patting his back.

"What about you?" He asked.

"Like my husband?" I asked.

Who the hell else.

He nodded.

"Well," I began. I took a sip of my drink.

"We were happy and all then he asked me to marry him I was so happy at that moment then 4 months into the wedding planning he admitted to have cheated on me with my older sister for 2 years.  
2 freaking years. I felt do angry and I felt so much rage. That's where my insanity started from. Then 3 days later this shit happened with the walkers. My family died at I was left with my older sister Melissa my ex fiancée Lance and Angel. We were separated at Atlanta and we drove on the highway until we met Rick's group." I said.

"I'm sorry." He said.

"It's alright. I hope they died." I said.

"That sounds more like you." He said with a laugh.

I laughed and took another swing.

"What about you and Rick?" Hershel asked.

WHAT

I'm surprised off what alcohol can do to Hershel.

"Excuse me?" I asked choking on my beer.

"I see the way he looks at you Rachel. When he came to talk to me he defended you and said nice things about you minus your crazy ness. He left Shane out to dry." He said.

That doesn't mean anything.

"What nice things did he say about me?" I asked.

"He said you're smart and you're good at what you do and that he's glad he found you."

I smiled.

Fuck.

It's that fucking feeling again.

"Naw he's got Lori and Carl and one on the way," I said.

"My chances with him are a big 0 percent." I said.

He takes another sip.

Then I hear it.

A car engine.

"They're here for us." I said.

"Mmhh." He replied.

A car door slammed.

I hear boots clacking on the floor when they burst through the doors.

"Hershel, Rachel?" Rick asks.

"Who's with you?" Hershel asked.

"Glenn." Rick replied.

"Maggie sent him?" Hershel asked.

"He volunteered, he's good like that." Rick said.

I could hear their footsteps get louder as they neared us.

I spin around in my stool and face Glenn and Rick.

Rick goes to Hershel's side and puts his arm on the counter.

"Beth collapsed she's in some sort of state must be in shock I think you are too." Rick said.

Good for that bitch.

"Maggie is with her?" Hershel asked.

"Yeah but Beth needs you." Rick continued.

"What could I do? She needs her mother I'd rather her mourn like she should've done weeks ago. I see that now." Hershel replies.

"You thought there was a cure, can't blame yourself for holding out for hope." Rick said.

"Hope." Hershel sais like if it was a new word he was learning in a foreign language.

Silence. The only noise heard was the ghostly wind howling outside.

"When I first saw you running down my field with your boy in your arms,"

He paused for a moment.

"I had little hope he'd survive."

"But he did."

"He did."

I looked down at my cup. I wasn't even that thirsty anymore.

"Even though we lost Otis, Rachel and Shane made it back and we saved your boy that was the miracle that proved to me that miracles do exist."

"I was a fool Rick and you people saw that,"

"My daughters deserve better than that."

He took another swig

He pours himself more alcohol.

Rick and Glenn move to the entrance of the bar.

"So what do we do wait for them to pass out?"

"Just go!" I yelled. I got up from the stool and walked towards them.

"I promised Maggie and Angel I'd bring both of you home safe." Rick interjected.

"Like you promised that little girl?" Hershel said.

That shut Rick up.

He went up to Hershel's side again.

"So what's your plan finish that bottle drink yourself to death and leave your girls alone?" Rick asked seriously.

Hershel gets up.

"Don't tell me how to run my family my farm you people are like a plaque!"

"I give you shelter and you destroy it all!"

"The world was already shit when we met!" He replied to Hershel.

"You take no responsibility you're supposed to be their leader!" He tells Rick getting in his face.

"I'm here now! Aren't i?" Rick replied.

"Yes,"

"Yes,"

"Yes you are."

Hershel's walks back to stool and sits back down and pours himself more vodka.

"C'mon your girls need you now." Rick tells him.

"More than ever." He finishes.

Rick tries to take Hershel's arm but he resists.

"I didn't want to believe you, that there was no cure, that these people were dead not sick I chose not believe that but when Shane shot Lou in the chest and she just kept coming that's when I knew what an ass I'd been that they'd been dead a long time ago and is been feeding a rotting corpse."

"That's when I knew there was no hope."

"And when that little girl came out of the barn, the look on your face I knew you knew it too right? There is no hope and you know it now like I do don't you."

Rick looks at Glenn

"There is no hope for any of us." Hershel sais.

"There is always fucking hope. No matter the smallest or tiniest hope, it's worth fighting for." I said.

Hershel goes back to drinking.

"Look I'm done I'm not doing this anymore cleaning up after you. You know what the truth is nothing has changed death is death it's always been there whether it's from heart attack cancer or-or a walker what's the difference. You didn't think it was hopeless before did ya? You know what this is about what we believe in anymore it's about them!"

Silence.

Hershel takes a swig

Rick pits hand on Hershel's shoulder.

All of a sudden the bar doors open.

It's two guys. Two random guys.

A skinny one and a thicker one with a shotgun.

"Son of a bitch," sais the skinnier one.

"They're alive."


	8. Chapter 8

I'm behind the counter of the bar serving the liquor.

"I'm Dave." The one sitting down said.

"That scrawny-looking douche bag there is Tony." Dave said pointing at his partner.

"Eat me, Dave." Tony replies.

"Hey, maybe someday I will." Dave comments.

"We met on I-95 coming out of Philly.  
Damn shit-show that was." Dave said.

They both laugh.

"I'm Glenn, it's nice to meet new people."

"I'm Rachel." I said.

"Haven't seen a woman in a long time." Dave said.

He emphasizes the word 'long'

Like do I care if you haven't seen a girl in a while.

"I'm Rick Grimes." Rick sais.

They pass the liquor.

"How about you pal have one?" Dave asks Hershel.

"I just quit." Hershel replies.

"Unique sense of timing my friend." Dave said.

"His names Hershel." Rick tells him.

"He lost people today... A lot of them." He adds.

There was an utter silence.

I took a sip of my cup.

"I'm truly sorry to hear that." Dave said turning to Hershel.

_Liar._

"The better days the new friends until we're dead. Let them be in a better place." Dave said lifting his cup.

He takes a swig

Dave exhales.

They mention something about wanting to get to Philadelphia.

I notice Rick starring a little too long at Dave.

Dave pulls out a gun from his pants.

"Not bad huh? I got it off a cop." Dave said.

"I'm a cop." Rick comments.

I laughed.

"This one was already dead." He adds.

Dave laughs.

"You fellas are a long way from Philadelphia." Rick said.

I could tell these guys were annoying the hell out of him.

"We're a long way from anywhere." Dave says straightening his back on the chair.

"What drove you south?" Rick asks.

"Well I can tell you it wasn't the weather," Dave starts.

"First it was dc thought there'd be some refugee camp the roads, are so jammed we never even got close decided to get of the highway. Every group we came across had a new rumor about how to get out if this thing."

"One guy told us there was the coast guard sitting in the Gulf, sending ferries to the islands." Tony said.

"That's fucking ridiculous." I said taking a sip of my drink.

"The latest was a rail yard in Montgomery running trains to the middle of the country - Kansas, Nebraska.." Dave adds.

"Low population, lots of guns." Tony says.

"Nebraska?" Glenn asks.

"Kinda makes sense." Glenn says.

"Ever been to Nebraska, kid? A reason they call 'em flyover states." Dave jokes.

We laughed except for Glenn who seemed confused at the joke.

"How about you guys?" Dave asks.

"Fort Benning eventually." Rick replies.

"I hate to piss in your cornflakes, officer, but We ran across a grunt who was stationed at Benning."

"He said the place was overrun by lamebrains." Dave said.

"Wait Fort Bennings is gone? Are you foreal?" Glenn asks.

"Sadly I am. The ugly truth is there is no way out if this mess just keep, going from one pipe train to the next praying one of these mindless freaks doesnt grab a hold if you while you sleep."

"If you sleep." Tony adds.

"Yeah doesn't look like you guys are hanging your hats here you hold up somewhere else?" Dave asks.

"Not really." Rick replies.

There is silence and tension between all of us.

"Those your cars out front?" Dave asks.

"Yeah," Glenn starts.

"Why?" Glenn asks.

"Those look uh kinda empty clean," Dave says suspiciously.

"Where's all your gear?" He asks.

"We're with a larger group out scouting, thought we would could use a drink." Hershel said.

"A drink Hershel I thought you quit!" Dave says.

It was quiet.

"Well we're thinking of setting up around here is it safe?" Dave asks.

"It can be," Glenn says.

Rick looks back at him.

"although I've killed a bunch if walkers over here." He finishes.

"Walkers? Is that what you call them?" Dave asked.

"Yeah." Glenn replies quietly.

"That's good. I like that better then lamebrains." He said.

Silence.

"So what so what, you guys set up on the outskirts or something? - That new development?" Dave asks.

"Trailer park or something? Farm?" Tony asks.

I could see what they were getting at.

"Old McDonald had a farm..." Dave began to sing.

Tony laughs.

"You got a farm?" Dave asks.

Tony went to a corner from the bar and unbuckled his pants.

He was taking a piss.

We looked at him with disgust.

Rick comes over to me.

"They're drawing on us, after I shoot Dave you shoot Tony." He whispered in my ear before sitting back down.

"Secrets, secrets." Dave said with a laugh.

"So is it safe?" He asked once again.

"Yeah it gotta be." Tony said.

"You got food and water?" Dave asked.

We didn't respond.

"So listen Glenn-" Dave was cut off.

"We've said enough." Rick stated.

"We'll hang on a second this farm it's sounds pretty sweet don't it sound sweet tony?" Dave asks Tony.

"Yeah real sweet." Tony replied.

The tension grew and grew.

These guys were pissing the hell out of me.

"We need some hospitality, we have some bodies back at camp. They aren't doing so well I don't see why you can't make room for a few more we could can make our resources-" Dave was one again cut off by Rick.

"Look I'm sorry that's not an option." He said.

"Doesn't sound like it'd be a problem." Dave insisted.

"I'm sorry we can't." Hershel said.

"We can't take any anymore." Rick says sternly.

Dave laughs.

I look over at Glenn.

He's sweating and looks nervous.

"You guys are something else. Well I thought you know I thought we were friends." Dave says.

"We've been talking for 6 minutes what made you think that?" I asked.

He laughs.

"Not a soft girl are you?" He asks.

Hershel scoffs.

"We got people we got to lookout for too." Dave insists.

"We don't know about you." Rick says.

He had a point there.

"Well that's true, you don't know anything about us you don't know what we've had to go through in our day, things we've had to do. I've bet you've had to do some of those same things yourself right?"

Silence

I immediately thought back to Sophia.

"We're all the same." Dave says.

"So c'mon let's take a nice friendly hayride to this farm and get to know each other." He says calmly.

"That's not gonna happen." Rick says back.

"Rick-" Dave was cut off by Tony.

"This is bullshit!" He yells.

"Calm the fuck down!" I yelled back.

"Don't tell me to calm don't ever tell me to calm down!" He yells back to me.

"C'mon-" Dave was cut off again.

"I'll shoot you four assholes in the head and take your damn farm!" Tony gets up and walks towards us.

I get up from my stool and head towards Tony.

"You wanna go-"

I tried to lunge towards him but Rick held me back.

"Whoa whoa whoa." Dave says as he pulls Tony.

"Relax." He says.

"Take it easy nobody's killing anybody, nobody's shooting anybody. Right Rick?" Dave asks.

Dave goes to the back of the counter on the side with a mirror on the wall.

Rick puts his hand over his gun hostler.

Dave takes out his gun and places it on the counter.

"We're just friends having a drink that's all." Dave says calmly.

"Now where's the good stuff huh good stuff." Dave says as he runs his hands together.

"Good stuff good stuff lets see.." He continues.

Rick goes for gun again and Dave sees him.

He ignores it and acts as he didn't.

"Hey look at that." Dave says holding up a bottle of wine.

"That'll work." He says.

He opens up the bottle and serves himself.

"You gotta understand I can't stay out there you know what it's like." He said.

"Yeah I do," Rick starts.

"But the farm is crowded as is sorry,"

"You'll have to keep looking." He finishes.

Dave takes a drink of his cup.

"Keep looking? Where do you suggest we do that?" He asks.

"I don't know. I hear Nebraska's nice." Rick replies.

Dave laughs.

Rick looks at me and gives me a 'get ready' face.

I nod.

Dave laughs.

"Nebraska? This guy." He says.

It's silent for maybe 2 seconds before Dave goes for his gun but Rick shoots him first.

His blood splatters on the mirror behind him.

I take out my shotgun and shoot Tony who was aiming for Rick.

They both fall to the floor with a thud. They're both dead.

Rick turns around and shoots Tonys dead body 2 more times.

He walks to the entrance in frustration.

They're both now officially dead.


	9. Chapter 9

By now it was already dark outside which meant it was night.

We all stand in silence.

"Holy shit." Glenn said.

"You alright?" Rick asks.

Glenn and I answer at the same time.

I didn't know who Rick was talking to.

There is no light in the bar.

It's complete darkness minus the moonlight shown through the bar doors.

"Hershel?" Rick asks.

He doesn't respond.

He just looks around the bar and back at Tony.

I think this is to much for him to handle in one day.

Rick looks at Hershel again.

This time Hershel nods. "Let's head back." He says.

I separate from them as Rick raids Tony for supplies and Glenn for Dave.

I grab my cup of vodka and finish what was inside.

We all head for the entrance which was also the exit when we see headlights flash over the bar doors.

"Car, car get down!" Rick yelled-whispered.

We crouched and went to the sides of the doors.

Rick was one the left side and me, Hershel and Glenn were on the other side.

We hear the car engine stop.

It's silence for a few seconds.

The only audible noise was our breathing.

Then footsteps and a car door slamming.

"Dave? Tony?" A stranger calls out.

They stopped making noise to hear if they would get a response.

Nothing.

"I'm telling you man I heard gunshots." Says another stranger.

"We gotta get out of here." The first stranger says.

"Dave?" A young voice yells.

"Shut up!" Replies another stranger.

They walked around more.

"You wanna attract them? Stay close." Says stranger number one.

Their shadows were visible through the bar door's windows.

They are carrying guns.

They walk around a little more.

I could hear the wind and a chime from the ornament outside.

"Dude I said stay close." Says stranger number one.

"Tony?" Calls the young voice once again.

After that the footsteps disappear.

We were all sweating and nervous. Glenn wasn't doing so well.

"I think they're gone." I whisper.

Rick slowly stands up on his side and steadily looks outside the window. He looks left then right.

He crouches back down and comes to our side.

"Why won't they leave?" Glenn asks nervously.

"Would you? We can't sit here any longer we gotta get to the back and make a run for the car." Rick says.

We all nodded in agreement.

We slowly get up making our way to the back when we hear something smash.

We immediately get back to our spots and remained quiet.

"They disappeared but their car is still there." Says the stranger.

"I cleared those buildings did you guys clear this one?" Says another stranger.

"Nope."

"Me neither."

"C'mon we're looking for Dave and Tony and no one checks the damn bar?" He says.

Rick begins to aim at the door.

They try to come in through the doors but Glenn goes over and leans on them shut in one move.

"What?" Says stranger number two.

"Someone pushed that shut there's someone in there." Says stranger number two.

"Yo someone in there?" Asks stranger number one.

"Yo if someone's in there we don't want no trouble we're just looking for our friends." He continues.

"What do we do? Bust down the door?" Asks the young voice.

"No we don't know how many are in there just relax." Says stranger number one.

"Listen we don't want any trouble we're just looking for our friends if something happened tell us." He insists.

I look at Rick. He looks as nervous and worried as the rest of us.

Anything could happen right now.

"This place is crawling with corpses if you could helps we'd appreciate it." He says.

I could hear Rick taking a deep breath.

"Dude I'm telling you there no one in there." Says stranger number two.

"They're in there they might know where Dave and Tony are." Stranger number one says.

We all look at Rick.

I remembered something he had told me earlier.

_"I am tired of these mother fucking snakes on this mother fucking plane!"_

Oops nope that wasn't Rick.

_"...Everybody looks up to me for guidance, for leadership..."_

That's better.

They begin walking around the entrance.

"They drew on us!" Rick finally yells.

They all walked in front of the door now.

"Dave and Tony, are they alive?"

"No!" I yelled back.

"Wait they have a girl with them." The young voice said.

There was silence for a moment.

"C'mon man lets go!" Says stranger number two.

"No I'm not leaving,"

"I'm not going back to tell them that Dave and Tony got shot by some assholes in a bar!" Stranger number one says, anger rising.

"Your friends drew on us! They gave us no choice!" Rick yells.

"I'm sure we've all lost enough people, done things we wish we didn't have to, but it's like that now." Rick continues.

"You know that! So let's just talk this up to what it was. Wrong place, wrong-" Rick was cut off by a gunshot.

He immediately stands up and begins shooting back.

"Get out of here! Go!" Rick yells at us.

We get and try to run for it but more shots are fired and we crouch back down in different places this time.

The gunshots stop.

Hershel slides a gun to Glenn.

We all exchange looks.

We are still breathing heavily and sweating.

Silence.

I hear Rick reload his gun and drop some bullets during the process.

I clutch my shot gun closer.

"Hey we all know this is not gonna end well! There's nothing in it for any of us! You guys just-just back off no one gets hurt!" Rick yells to them.

We get no response.

Rick gives him a sign saying to go check out the back.

It was always Glenn.

Glenn doesn't resist on this one.

He nervously goes to the back being as quiet as possible.

It was silent for a few moments.

A gunshot rings through the air.

We all get up and run towards the beck where Glenn was at.

"Glenn!" Rick yells.

"I'm alright I'm alright." Glenn says calmly.

Rick turns to Hershel.

"We'll hold 'em here.  
You cover Glenn," Rick says to Hershel.

"See if you can make it to your car.  
Tell him tell him to pull up back.  
We'll run for it, get the hell out of here." He finishes.

"You want me to cover Glenn?" Hershel asks.

"You missed all that gun training. It could've came in handy right now." Rick says to Hershel.

"I can shoot I just don't like too." Hershel replies as Rick hands him a gun.

Hershel walks to Glenn.

"Rachel you're with me, we'll be in the front in case they decide to go another round." Rick says.

I nodded.

We headed back to the main entrance of the bar and crouched down on opposite sides of the bar.

I heard a light thunder roll.

It was quiet. The bar now had shattered windows and tiny prices of glass on the floor.

There was a broken bottle of vodka lying a few feet away from me.

All the alcohol had spilled on the table and it was dripping on to the floor.

My heart was racing.

This couldn't be happening.

I had no idea if we were gonna make it out alive or dead.

I looked over at Rick who was looking cautiously outside.

I loved when he got serious.

Something about it just...I don't know.

I hugged my shotgun closer.

**BANG.**

"It came from the back." I said.

We quickly got up and ran to Hershel and Glenn.

"What happened?!" Rick asked when we got there.

"They fired." Hershel replied.

We we're know at the back of the bar.

Hershel looks at Rick.

"They must've hit Glenn, he's behind the dumpster. It doesn't look like he's moving." Hershel adds.

No. Not Glenn.

If these son if a bitches hurt Glenn I swear I will...

I don't know.

"Help!" Moans a body on the grass a few yards away from us.

I'm assuming that's who Hershel shot.

Rick hops off the bar.

"You hit?" He asks Glenn as he's sliding down a wall slowly.

The stranger on the grass was still crying out in pain.

Glenn doesn't reply.

Rick keeps sliding along the wall making his way closer and closer to the dumpster.

"Are you hit?" He asks again

"No, no." Glenn replies.

Oh thank god.

Rick goes to other wall and talks silently to Glenn.

The stranger was still moaning and crying.

"Let's go." Rick says.

We begin to slowly walk out of the alley but they spot us and begin shooting at us.

"Get back." Rick says.

We get back into the alley out if view.

We hear tires squeal and stop.

"Let's get out of here! Roamers all over the place! Hurry up! We gotta get out of here!" Says stranger number one.

"What about Sean?"

"They shot him.  
We gotta go!"

"Roamers are everywhere."

"We're leaving?" Asks the young voice.

"Jump! Hurry up, jump already!"

I tilt my head to see if I can get a view of what's going on.

I see a stranger on the top of a building jump.

He screams out in pain as if he missed his target.

"Dude didn't make it." Glenn whispers.

"Help me!" The guy that jumped said.

"I gotta go!"

"Sorry!"

The men get back into their cars and speed away leaving the guy that jumped and the men Hershel shot.

He's still screaming.

"Get Hershel!" Rick says.

The guy that jumped off is still asking for help.

Rick gets up and runs across the field.

I'm guessing the coast is clear.

"Hershel!" Glenn yells.

We watch in horror as walkers swarm the man Hershel shot.

They're tearing his flesh off and eating it.

Hershel shoots at one.

Unfortunately it was already to late for him.

The walkers have teared him to shreds.

The man screams and screams as more flesh is ripped off him.

More walkers began showing up.

"Hershel, Hershel it's alright" I said.

"The gunfire must've attracted the walkers." He said.

"Where's Rick?" Hershel asks.

"He ran across." Glenn replied.

"Well hell we can't go without him. Rick!"

We run across the field.

When we get to him we see that he's with that guy that jumped off the building.

His leg went through the fence.

Holy crap.

"We have to go now." Hershel says.

Me and Glenn show up behind them heavily breathing and sweating again.

"No!" The stranger whines.

"I'm sorry son we have to go." Hershel replies.

"No please don't leave me!"

"We can't." Rick says.

"He was just shooting at us!" Glenn yells.

"Let the son of a bitch die!" I add.

"He's a kid!" Rick yells back.

"Please help me!" The stranger whines again.

"The place is crawling with walkers!" Glenn says.

"We can't leave him!" Rick insists.

"Yes we can! Let's go!" I said.

"The fence went clean through.  
There's no way we can get the leg off in one piece." Hershel's says.

The guy continues to moan and squirm.

"Shut up or I will shoot you!" Rick threatens to him.

"Let me shoot him!" I said.

"That may be the answer." Hershel comments.

He pulls Rick aside.

"...We're not gonna get that leg off without tearing the muscle to shreds he certainly can't run hey may bleed out..." I could hear him say.

The stranger kept screaming and moaning.

"Shut up!" Glenn tells him.

His gun accidentally hit the strangers leg in the process.

"Oowww!"

"Sorry. Shut up!" He tells him again.

"Okay this is bullshit." I say.

I begin to load my gun.

"No don't shoot me!" The stranger crys.

"I don't want to see anymore killing but this is cruel!" Hershel says.

"Can't we just take the leg off?" Glenn asked. His breathing just got heavier and heavier.

"Oh let me!" I say pulling my knife out.

I was about to get to him put I was pulled back.

"No. That hatchet still in the car?" Rick asked.

"No no, don't don't Don't cut my leg off, please!" He begged.

"Please, not my leg." He pleads.

Rick takes my knife.

"Will this cut through the bone?" Rick asks showing Hershel.

"I'll have to sever the ligaments below the kneecap, cut above the tibia. He's gonna lose his lower leg." Hershel replies.

"No don't no!" He begs.

"When we get clear of here, we're gonna have to find some tinder, cauterize the wound so he doesn't bleed out." Hershel adds.

"All right, no choice.  
Hurry up." Rick says.

"Oh God, oh God."

"No!"

"Hand me that stick."

"Here."

"No.

"Ah!"

We start to hear faint growling of some walkers.

After that they began to emerge from everywhere.

"Guys, walkers." Glenn warns.

"Hurry up!" Rick yells.

The walkers begin to get close.

Glenn and I start shooting at them.

Shooting one and one comes out from behind to replace it.

They must've smelled the blood and heard the strangers loud and obnoxious screaming.

"Shut up!" Rick yells to him.

The snarls of the walkers are coming from all directions.

"Oh god they're everywhere!" Rick yells.

Rick takes his out his gun and begins shooting the walkers on his side.

There was a minute of just constant shooting and growls.

"Hershel, how we doing over there?!" Rick asks as he guns more and more walkers down.

"I need more hands!" He replies.

"Easy easy." He says.

"No, don't don't don't don't cut my leg off please."

We kept shooting. As I was about to gun down another my gun clicked.

Fuck.

"I'm out of ammo!" I yelled.

"Come on, we gotta go! I'm almost out of ammo too! We don't have much time!" Glenn yells.

"Come on, we've gotta go! Can't hold 'em off!" Rick yells.

"Hershel, do it now! - Come on, Hershel!" He continues.

"There is no time!" Hershel replies.

"Hershel come on!"

We begin to back down and Glenn and Rick lower there guns.

"C'mon we have to leave him let's go!" I tell them.

"Please don't leave me! Please! No! Please don't leave me! Please! Please don't leave me!"

Rick goes over to the strangers leg and pulls it out off the fence in one tug.

Some off his flesh is still caught on the fence.

The stranger screams louder than all his other screams combined.

* * *

By the time we're on our way back to the farm it's already morning.

We began to pull up in a familiar highway.

Then the farm comes into view.

We begin to drive on the passage way and we see another car loaded with supplies.

They were gonna go looking for us.

Rick parks the car.

He gets out and goes for Carl.

"Dad! You're okay!" He yells in a squeal.

I get out of the car and Angel comes and attacks me with a hug.

I pull back from the hug and mouth 'I'm okay' to her.

She nods.

Rick is hugging Lori and Carl all together.

Shane looks at them with disgust.

What was his deal.

I try to hide my laughter as Maggie goes right past through Hershel and hugs Glenn instead.

"Patricia prepare the shed for surgery." Hershel says.

"Are you hurt?" Lori asks Rick.

"No, but what happened to you?" He replies rubbing something on loris temple.

"I was in a car accident." She replies.

"Accident? How?" Rick asks worried.

"I went looking for you." She replies.

"Snuck out on her own.  
Brought her back." Shane comments.

"Are you crazy? You could've-" Rick was cut off.

"Who the hell is that?" Asks T-dog looking over at the car.

Soon everybody's attention is on the car.

"That's Randall." Glenn says.

"Oh crap I forgot about his ass." I said.

"You were sitting next to him and you kept your gun pointing at his head the entire time." Glenn replies to me.

The group begins to crowd him from.

Lori had Carl behind her.

He has a bandana over his eyes.

"Rachel wake him up for me please. I need him ready for the surgery." Hershel says from the porch.

I look back at him and flash him a wicked smile.

"My pleasure." I replied.

* * *

We were all discussing Randall's fate in the kitchen.

"We couldn't just leave him behind, he would have bled out." Rick says.

"We should've left him he tried to kill us." I interject.

"He would've died." Rick said turning to me.

I pfft and rolled my eyes.

"What do we do with him?" Andrea asked.

Rick was about to say something but Hershel came from behind him.

"I repaired his calf muscle as best I can, but he'll probably have nerve damage. Won't be on his feet for at least a week." Hershel says.

"When he is, we give him a canteen, take him out to the main road, send him on his way." Rick replies.

"Isn't that the same as leaving him for the walkers?" Andrea commented.

"He'll have a fighting chance." Rick says.

I scoffed. "Please he's as good as dead." I added.

"Just gonna let him go? He knows where we are." Shane says.

"He was blindfolded the whole way here. He's not a threat." Rick says calmly.

"Not a threat? How many of them were there? You killed three of their men, you took one of them hostage, but they just ain't gonna come looking?" Shane adds standing up.

"They left him for one is looking." Rick replies.

"We should still post a guard." T-Dog says.

"He's out cold right now, will be for hours." Hershel said.

"You know what? I'm gonna go get him some flowers and candy." Shane says.

Oh no here we go again with Shane and his shit.

He goes around the table and exits the kitchen into the living room.

"Look at this folks we're back in fantasy land!" He comments with a laugh.

Hershel walks up to him.

"You know, we haven't even dealt with what you did at my barn yet.  
Let me make this perfectly clear, once and for all, This is my farm.  
Now I wanted you gone. Andrea talked me out of it, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. So do us both a favor keep your mouth shut." He says to Shane.

"Rachel did it too. Hell she opened the lock! Why isn't she off your land? Why aren't you bitching at her to get off your land?" Shane yells back.

Hershel stayed quiet.

Shane states at Hershel for a few seconds before turning around and rubbing his head in the process.

He opens the door and walks out slamming the door.

"Look we're not gonna do anything about it today lets just cool off." Rick tells Hershel as he places a hand on his shoulder.

Andrea gets up from her chair and follows after Shane.

We all slowly get up and head out of the kitchen.

* * *

I'm leaning on a tree.

Not the one I'm usually on, a different one.

From here I could see and faintly hear Shane and Andrea discussing something.

Are they dating?

Naw.

They're probably just having sex secretly or something.

I don't know why Shane is still even allowed in this group.

All Andrea does is follow him around and does everything he says.

She isn't really a help to the group. She thinks she's the toughest person in the group. She thinks she can be leader.

I laughed.

Stupid bitch.

Shane and Andrea stop talking and I see Andrea coming my way.

What could she possibly want.

"Hey." She said.

"Hello." I replied.

"You know you and me, we aren't so different," she begins.

"We are outcasted, we're underestimated." She says.

"Shane and I were planning on leaving this camp. You know start our own. The only difference is that in this camp, we'd all be the leaders, not just Rick and Hershel." She finishes.

"Aren't you tired of being bossed around?" She asks me.

"Yes and no," I replied.

"I have a little sister here I can't just abandon her. Plus I'm used to taking Rick's orders already." I said.

She put her hands over her chest.

"Think about it." She said before walking off.

I have to admit it was tempting but I couldn't just leave.

This group has become like a third family.

I'm not leaving.


	10. Chapter 10

**I rushed through this chapter a bit. Sorry if it's bad. :) **

* * *

I was sitting on the couch in the living room thinking about what Andrea had offered me yesterday.

So I guess Shane did have a thing with her.

I still can't believe that she had the nerve to talk to me.

After all I've done to her and all she's done to me.

Shane wasn't at the farm right now.

He and Rick had taken Randall _18 miles out_ and they planned to leave him there.

I would kill him myself but they decided to just dump him there.

That was the end of Randall's story.

I was left here with the women.

Beth really wasn't doing ok.

I thought Rick was exaggerating just to get Hershel to come back to the farm but he actually wasn't kidding.

She was really pale and cold.

I thought maybe I could go in and talk to her. Apologize or something.

But right now I was hungry.

I got up and walked to the kitchen.

Maggie and Lori were having a conversation.

"...Says he froze. Blames me. Says I got inside his head." Maggie says.

"He came back, that's what matters."

I was planning on just getting some fruit and then leave as fast as I could but Maggie sucked me into the conversation.

"Rachel you were at the bar with them...how did Glenn do?" Maggie asked me.

"Um he was really nervous. I mean we all were but him especially. It looked like something was bothering him though." I said serving some apple slices on a bowl.

Maggie looked at Lori in disappointment.

"Men have to do certain things- You know that- And they're either gonna blame the little woman as the reason they do 'em or the reason they don't.  
I'll tell you something- what happens out there happens out there. And we- we're just trying to keep it together till they get back." Lori says munching on a cucumber piece.

She had a point.

"That's it. Trust me I was there. All we did was wait for Rick to give an order or something." I said taking a piece of watermelon and plopping it in my mouth.

Bonding.

"Maybe I-" Maggie starts.

"Glenn's a big boy. He makes his own choices, and then you- do you have anything to apologize for? Tell him to man up and pull himself together." Lori says.

I liked her attitude.

"Just don't say "man up." It never goes well." She adds with a smile.

I laugh.

Lori looks at me with a smile.

"Let me just get this to Beth." Lori says as she picks up a tray of food.

She disappears into Beth's room.

A few seconds later Angel comes out from her room.

"How's she doing? Did it work?" Maggie asked Angel.

"No. She barely answered any of my questions." Angel said.

Maggie sighed. "Alright." She replied.

"Rachel I did your laundry it's outside if you wanna go get it." Angel told me.

"Thanks." I said.

I exited the kitchen through the side door and walked to the neatly piled clothes on a wooden table next to Lori's and Rick's tent.

I walked over the dirt and leaves and took my jacket off and put it next to my clean clothes.

I fingered the fabric of my flannel and put it over my tank top.

I had four pairs of jeans, one set of tights, four shirts and two jackets.

Oh and only one shoe pair.

My combat boots.

I walked back inside the house and headed for Beth's door.

Lori walks out of Beth's room with a knife in her hands.

"What happened?" I asked.

"She's trying to kill herself. Stay in there and make sure she doesn't try anything. I'll be right back." She says before walking out the door.

I stay in the same spot for a few seconds.

Then I gently push open Beth's doors and let myself in.

"Hey." I said quietly.

She didn't respond she just starred at me.

"Look I'm really sorry about everything. I know I'm a bad person but I'm trying to change. For my sister for Hershel for the group," I began.

"But it's not that easy. Everybody hates me I get that but you have so many reasons to live for." I said.

Her eyes got watery.

"Just before anything, think of the damage you'd be causing for your family." I said.

Maggie burst through the doors.

She looks at Beth and inspects her wrists.

"Rachel could you leave us alone for a moment please." Maggie said.

Her voice tone meant business.

"Sure." I replied.

I walked out of the room and the door slammed shut behind me.

"Are you crazy? What if dad finds out?" Maggie yells.

"What's he gonna do? Kill me for committing suicide?" Beth yells back.

As of now this conversation was none of my business.

I passed by Andrea and Lori in the kitchen and walked back outside.

This farm will be the death of me.

I walked over to my backpack that I hasn't touched since I got here.

I zipped it open. I saw a flashlight an instant camera, my phone which had ran out of battery months ago. My house keys, a lighter, some underwear and socks and bras.

At the very bottom was a picture of my family.

Me, my mom, my dad, Angel,and Melissa.

We all looked so happy with smiles on our faces.

There was a glare on my fathers forehead.

I laughed for a moment.

I felt the tears coming but I brushed them away.

I shoved the picture back into my backpack and zipped it up.

I walked back to the house.

I was about to enter the kitchen for more food when I heard Andrea and Lori arguing.

"...And you- you don't care about anyone but yourself- You sit up on that RV, working on your tan with a shotgun in your lap." Lori said.

"No, I am on watch against walkers.  
That is what matters, not fresh mint leaves in the lemonade." Andrea retorted back.

"And we are providing stability.  
We are trying to create a life worth living." Lori said.

"What about Rachel? Huh what does she do?" Andrea asked.

"Rachel unlike you actually tries to protect this group. She acts. She doesn't sit around waiting for her own moment." Lori said.

Thanks Lori.

"Rachel doesn't help this group I do." Andrea replied.

"She's preferred over you." Lori comments.

"You've got to be kidding me! After opening the barn and letting those walkers lose?" Andrea says.

"Don't act like you're the only one who can take care of herself."

"Ever apologize for crashing Maggie's car-"

"You're insane."

"No, you are,"

"And you're the one that's self-centered, the way you take it all for granted." Andrea finishes.

"My husband is out there for the hundredth time. My son was shot.  
Don't you dare tell me I take this for granted!" Lori replies.

"You don't get it, do you? Your husband came back from the dead, your son too. And now you've got a baby on the way,"

"The rest of us have piled up our losses- Me, Carol, Beth- but you just keep on keeping on." Andrea said.

"We have all suffered." Lori adds.

"Playing house, acting like the queen bee, laying down rules for everybody but yourself." Andrea said.

I hadn't realized that it was actually like that until Andrea said it.

"You know what? Go ahead. Go in there and tell that little girl that everything's gonna be okay, just like it is for you. She'll get a husband, a son, baby, boyfriend." Andrea said.

That shut Lori up.

Andrea got her well.

* * *

"Beth? Beth? Beth? Maggie? She's in there. I heard glass." Lori says.

"Beth, you all right? Don't do this, Beth." Maggie pleads.

Beth was in her bathroom crying.

"Don't do this."

"Open up, please."

"God, I left her with Andrea."

Lori looked turned to her.

"Where's a key?"

"I don't know."

"Beth honey, please open the door.  
I'm not mad."

"I'm not mad, Beth."

"Maggie."

"Hang on."

Lori broke open the door.

It revealed a Beth with a bleeding wrist.

"I'm sorry." She says through tears.

"T's okay."

"Stay there."

* * *

We walked to the porch and saw Andrea on the bottom of the stairs.

"Where were you?" Maggie says to Andrea.

"I heard. Is she all right?" Andrea asked.

"She would be if you had stayed with her. Where were you?" Maggie asked again.

"How bad is she?"

"It wasn't deep." I said.

"She wants to live.  
She made her decision." Andrea said.

"She tried to kill herself."

"No, she didn't."

"My father is stitching her wrist right now."

"She'll live." Andrea reassured.

"Stay away from her, from both of us." Maggie said.

"Don't you dare step foot inside this house again." Maggie says.

Andrea turns around and walks away in annoyance.

When she's far away enough Lori says,

"I'm not gonna say she was right, but Beth has made her choice.  
She wants to live and now she knows it And sometimes you have to cross the line."

She was right.

Beth wants to live.


	11. Chapter 11

**Ok guys follow mine and my friends account on ig twdparody :) we post a bunch of parodies lol xD I'm honestly really proud of this chapter :D**

* * *

Rick had asked Daryl and I to interrogate Randall who was currently tied up in chains on the shed wall.

I watched as Daryl gave him a hard punch to the face.

"I told you!"

"You haven't told us shit!" I yelled.

"I barely knew those guys. I met 'em on the road." He replied.

"How many in your group?" Daryl asked.

"Uh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no."

He gave him another hard punch.

"Come on, man." He begged.

"How many?!" Daryl asked again.

"Uh, 30- 30." He replied wearily.

"Where?" Daryl asked.

"Uh I don't know." He replied.

I went up to him and gave him a hard slap in the face. Something that I was used to doing growing up with Melissa.

"I swear!"

"We were never anyplace more than a night." He said.

"Scouting? Planning on staying local?" Daryl asked.

"I- I don't know." He replied.

"They- they left me behind." He said.

Daryl takes out his knife and leans down and places it on Randall's knee cap.

"Did you ever pick off a scab?" Daryl asked.

"Come on, man! - I'm-I'm trying to cooperate." He pleads.

"Start real slow at first," Daryl began.

"No!" Randall whined.

"Sooner or later, you've just gotta rip it off!" Daryl said.

I have to admit he was kinda scary.

Well at the moment.

"Ooowww! Okay. Okay." Randall said.

"They have weapons- Heavy stuff, automatics. But I didn't do anything.  
Your boys shot at my boys, tried to take this farm." He said.

"You just went along for the ride? You're trying to tell me you're innocent?!" Daryl yelled in his face.

"Yes! These- these people took me in."

"Not just guys- A whole group of ' and women, kids too- Just like you people." He said with a fake smile.

"Thought I'd have a better chance with them, you know? But We go out, scavenge. Just the men.  
One night, we-we found this little campsite," Randall begins.

We both stop to listen.

"A man and his two daughters Teenagers, you know? Real young."

"Real cute." He finished. As soon a he said that I could tell he regretted it.

That made my blood stop cold.

I look at Daryl and Daryl looks at me.

No they didn't. So they're a group of 30 men. But not just any 30 men, 30 damn rapists.

"Their daddy had to watch while these guys- they- And they didn't even kill him just- They just made him watch as his daughters- They just-just- just left him there." He said backing up into the wall.

"No, but-but- but I didn't touch those girls. No, I swear I didn't to-"

I go over to him and give him a hard punch on the jaw.

"Please! Please! You gotta believe me, man! I'm not like that." He whined.

"I ain't like that,"

"Please. Please, you gotta believe me." He said rolling on his side.

* * *

When Daryl and I were finished we headed back to the camp.

When we get there, the group had already been discussing something else.

"Boy there's got a gang, 30 men.  
They have heavy artillery and they ain't looking to make friends. They roll through here, our boys are dead." Daryl says.

"And the women," I said.

I swallowed.

"They're gonna wish they were." I said seriously.

I'm guessing everybody knew what we meant by that.

"What did you do? What happened to your knuckles?" Asked Angel.

"Had a little chat." Daryl replied.

I looked down at my blood covered knuckles.

"No one goes near this guy." Rick states.

"Rick, what are you gonna do?" Lori asked.

"We have no choice," he replied.

"He's a threat." Rick finished.

"We have to eliminate the threat." I added.

"You're just gonna kill him?" Dale interjects.

"It's settled." Rick replies flatly.

"I'll do it today."

* * *

I was sitting on the porch with Maggie. We were just talking and eating some fruit she sliced earlier.

Bonding.

"Do you have any other family besides Angel anywhere?" She asks.

Here we go again.

"Yeah. A sister. I honestly don't even know if she's alive or not." I said.

Maggie looks at me with a straight face.

"What was she like?" She asked.

"Well she was funny, bitchy, caring and smart," I said.

"We would always get into fights. Over any little thing."

"If I were to be honest I really miss her. She was really the only other person I knew that was a bigger bitch than I was." I said.

We both lightly laughed.

"She's pretty tough too." I said.

"That must run in your family." She said with a smile.

"It stopped at Angel." I said.

She laughed.

"Yeah I kinda figured." She replies.

"Beth can be bratty sometimes. But after all I still love her."

"We've been through so much together." She adds.

_"Shoot that one! Shoot that one!" Melissa yells at me in our front yard._

_I point my water gun at an invisible alien and press trigger as the water shoots the air._

_She was 9 and I was 5._

_"There's too many!" I yell._

_She positions her back behind my back._

_"I've got your back, you've got mine!" She yells back at me._

* * *

Angels P.O.V

"Carl, your dad said we can't go near him!" I yelled-whispered to him.

"We're not gonna get caught don't worry." He says back.

We climbed up the ladder on the back of the shed.

We were both standing on the hay floor just a few feet above him.

He doesn't notice us at first.

I step on a hay stick that caused him to look up.

"Hey." He whispers.

We don't respond.

"That's a sweet hat. I'm Randall." He informs.

"What's your name?" He asks.

We again don't reply.

"The sheriff guy, that's your guy's dad? I like him," he says.

"Yeah, he's a good guy. I can tell." He continues.

"Your mom out here too? You're you're lucky you still got your family.  
I lost mine." He says.

We still don't respond. We slowly climbed down the shed wall so we were now about 3 feet away from him.

"Hey, I- I don't know what people been saying about me, but I didn't do nothing. I dad was gonna let me go till his friend started fighting with him." He says.

"Hey I like your hair it looks soft and shiny. I don't see to many pretty girls now a days." He tells me.

I blushed.

He kept looking back and forth to us and the door.

"My camp, we got lots of supplies.  
You help me, I'll take you and your folks back to my people. We'll take good care of you. Keep you safe,"

"Just gotta- Just gotta help me get out of here, okay? Just help me pick these locks or find the key, okay? Come on, please? Please?" He begs.

Then Shane walks in through the doors.

"What the hell are you doing in here?" He asks us.

"What did you say to them? What did you say to him, huh?" Shane asks getting in the prisoners face.

"I didn't say nothing." He lies.

"Hey, hey." Shane says taking out his gun.

"Let me tell you something, I will shoot you where you sit." Shane says to him.

"Okay Shane, not now." Andrea says.

"Open your mouth." Shane orders to the stranger.

"Open your mouth." He says again trying to push the gun in his mouth.

The stranger strongly resists.

"Shane." Andrea said.

"You like talking, man? You like talking?!" Shane yells.

I flinch.

"Back off!" Andrea yells pulling him off the stranger

"Let's go." Shane says to us.

"The hell you doing?" He asks us.

"Please don't tell my parents."

"Please don't tell Rachel."

"Guys, that ain't cool, man." He says.

"You could've gotten hurt in there." He says.

"I can handle myself." Carl replies.

"Let me tell you something- you do not go near him again. Do you hear me? Damn it." He says facing us.

"You won't tell my parents, will you?" Carl and.

"Carl, man, this- This isn't about getting in trouble, okay? A guy like that, he will say anything to you.  
He'll try to make you feel sorry for him. He'll try to make you get your guard down. You let your guard down out here, people die. You hearing me Angel?" He says.

I quickly nod.

"Now, just- Do me a favor, man- Go find your ma." He finished.

* * *

Rachel's P.O.V

I was outside sitting on the porch enjoying the fresh air and blue view.

It was so relaxing.

After the shit that's happened over these past few weeks, I deserved a break.

Dale starts walking up the stairs on the porch.

He stops in front of me and says,

"Why are you doing this?" He asked.

"Doing what?" I asked.

"Killing an innocent man!" He says.

I get up from the chair.

"You listen to me Dale, that boy in that she'd is not innocent. He tried to kill us. If we let him go we are as good as dead." I said.

I sat back down.

"Rachel I know you don't want to do this. You're an exceptional women! You don't have to constantly be following Rick's rules, you're old enough to speak up and make your own decisions." He said.

"I've made up my mind Dale okay?" I said.

He twisted his hat in his hands.

"Would you at least think about it?" He asks.

I don't respond for a few seconds.

"Talk to Angel. Maybe she'll join your ridiculous opinion." I said getting up from the chair and going inside the house.

* * *

We were in the living room discussing what we were gonna do with Randall.

"So how do we do this? Just take a vote?" Glenn asks.

"Does it have to be unanimous?" Andrea adds.

"How about majority rules?" T-Dog suggests.

"Well, let's- let's just see where everybody stands, then we can talk through the options." Rick says.

"There's only one option I care about and that's-" I was cut off.

"Killing him, right? I mean, why even bother to even take a vote? It's clear which way the wind's blowing." Dale says.

I rolled my eyes.

"Well, if people believe we should spare him, I wanna know." Rick replies.

"Well, I can tell you it's a small group. Maybe just me, Glenn and Angel." Dale says.

Angel and Carl were out in the back with Jimmy. Beth's boyfriend or something.

We all turn to look at Glenn who was the only one besides Angel who had apparently agreed with Dale.

"Look, I- I think you're pretty much right about everything, - all the time, but this-" Glenn says.

"They've got you scared."

"He's not one of us." I said.

"How about you? Do you agree with this?" Dale asked Hershel.

"Couldn't we continue keeping him prisoner?"

"Just another mouth to feed."

"It may be a lean winter."

"We could ration better."

"Well, he could be an asset." I said.

"Give him a chance to prove himself." Dale says.

"Put him to work?"

" We're not letting him walk around."

"We could put an escort on him."

"Who wants to volunteer for that duty?"

"I will." Dale declares.

Everybody was blurting out their own opinions all at once.

"I don't think any of us should be walking around with this guy." Rick says.

"He's right, I wouldn't feel safe unless he was tied up." Lori adds.

"We can't exactly put chains around his ankles, sentence him to hard labor." Andrea comments.

"Look, say we let him join us, right? Maybe he's helpful, maybe he's nice.  
We let our guard down and maybe he runs off, brings back his 30 men." Shane says.

"So the answer is to kill him to prevent a crime that he may never even attempt? If we do this, we're saying there's no hope." Dale replies.

"Could you drive him further out? Leave him like you planned?" I suggested.

"You barely came back this time." Lori comments.

"There are walkers.  
You could break down.  
You could get lost.  
Or get ambushed."

"They're right."

"We should not put our own people at risk."

"If you go through with it, how would you do it? Would he suffer? We could hang him, right? Just snap his neck."

"I thought about that."

"Shooting may be more humane."

"And what about the body?"

"Do we bury him?"

"No we should burn it."

"Hold on, hold on! You're talking about this like it's already decided." Dale interrupts.

I let out a sigh.

"You've been talking all day, going around in circles."

"You just wanna go around in circles again?"

"This is a young man's life, and it is worth more than a five-minute conversation!" Dale says.

We all fall silent.

"Is this what it's come to? We kill someone because we can't decide what else to do with him? You saved him and now look at us," Dale begins.

"He's been tortured. He's gonna be executed. How are we any better than those people that we're so afraid of?" Dale asks.

He had a valid point there.

"We all know what needs to be done." I commented.

"No, Dale is right." Andrea says.

We all stop talking for a moment.

Andrea defending Dale?

Out of all the people in this room.

"We can't leave any stone unturned here."

"We have a responsibility."

"So what's the other solution?"

"Let Rick finish."

"We haven't come up with a single viable option yet."

"I wish we could."

"So let's work on it!"

"We are."

"Stop it. Just stop it. I'm sick of everybody arguing and fighting. I didn't ask for this. You can't ask us to decide something like this.  
Please decide- Either of you, both of you- But leave me out." Carol said.

The room finally went quiet again.

"Not speaking out or killing him yourself."

"There's no difference."

"All right, that's enough. Anybody who wants the floor before we make a final decision has the chance." Rick says looking at all of us.

The room well silent. Not one person decided to speak up.

I felt kinda bad for him. He was really standing by his decision.

I would speak up but I remember that these people think of me as a heartless person.

Dale twisted his hat in frustration.

"You once said that we don't kill the living." Dale says desperately.

I must've not been there for that.

"Well, that was before the living tried to kill us." Rick replies.

"But don't you see? If we do this, the people that we were. The world that we knew is dead. And this new world is ugly. It's Harsh, It's- it's survival of the fittest. And that's a world I don't wanna live in, and I don't-And I don't believe that any of you do."

He was right. This new world this new civilization wasn't we deserved.

Angel shouldn't be growing up in this world.

Lori's unborn child shouldn't have to be living in this world.

"Isn't there anybody else who's gonna stand with me?" Dale asks desperately.

"He's right." Andrea says.

She looks at Shane.

"We should try to find another way."

"Anybody else?"

Nobody speaks up.

I'm not sure if they do want him dead or if they are afraid to say something.

"Are y'all gonna watch, too? No, you'll go hide your heads in your tents and try to forget that we're slaughtering a human being,"

"Well I won't be a party to it."

Dale gets up to leave. When he passes by Daryl he tells him,

"This group is broken."

_This group is broken. I'm broken_.

* * *

It was night. Rick, Shane, Daryl and I were taking Randall to the another barn Hershel had.

Rick was gonna shoot him.

Then that'd be the real end of Randall.

They opened the barn doors and Rick put the lantern on the floor.

"Hold on. Hold on. Wait, wait."

"Wait- ah." Randall whined as Shane pushed him.

"Put him there." Rick said.

"Oh, hey-hey!" Randall

"It's all gonna be over soon." Shane said as he tied a bandana over his eyes.

"What? What's gonna be over soon" he asked voice cracking.

"Your execution, just relax." I reassured with a wicked smile.

"No, no, no, no." He whined.

"Shh, shh, shh, shh."

"No." He replied.

I think he started to cry.

"Shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh."

Rick loads his gun. Loud enough for Randall to hear.

"Oh, no no." He said.

"Would you like to stand or kneel?" Rick asked.

"Oh, no, please." He begged.

He was kneeling.

He began to move from side to side whining and crying.

"Do you have any final words?" Rick asks.

"No, please. Please don't. Don't." He whined standing up.

Rick was aiming for him but made no attempt.

"Do it, dad. Do it." Carl's voice said from the entrance.

Rick and Shane look at each other.

Shane goes to Carl.

"Are you kidding me? What'd I say to you?..." Shane begins at Carl.

Daryl and I keep glancing at Rick waiting for him to finally kill him.

I look at his shaking arm.

He's not gonna do it.

"Take him away." Rick said putting his gun down.

I sigh in annoyance.

"Get up." Daryl says to Randall.

"Ahh." He whines in pain.

* * *

We met back to the camp with everybody else.

"Did you do it?" Angel asked.

"We're keeping him in custody, for now." Rick replied.

Angel smiled.

"I'm gonna find Dale." Andrea said happily.

"Did Rick chicken out?" Angel asked.

I nodded in disappointment.

"You can't blame him." Angel replied with a blanket around her.

"I don't. Carl showed, he wanted to watch. I guess he shook Rick's confidence." I said.

Angel was about to reply when we heard a loud scream and gun shot through the air.

Who could it be? We were all here except,

Dale.

"Get Carl." Lori demanded.

"What happened?" He asked.

"Rachel, T-dog, get a shotgun now!" Rick commanded.

"Angel and Carl get inside the house, I want you to lock the door - and I want you to stay inside." Lori demanded.

I grabbed my shot gun and followed Rick.

"Who is it?" I ask when we get to the field.

"Oh, my God." I choked out.

"Oh, God."

"Rick!"

"All right, just listen to my voice. Listen to me, all right? Just listen to me."

I turned away. I couldn't look.

His stomach was ripped open.

There was a dead walker a few feet away from him.

The others voices blur around me.

I felt sick to my stomach.

Dale was such a sweet man.

His opinion on Randall meant so much more right nor than it ever did.

Carl and Angel took a peek at the walker and looked at each other in horror.

They were supposed to stay inside the house.

"He's suffering! Do something!" Andrea yelled through tears.

Angel was crying.

I wanted to, but I didn't.

Rick gets up and aims his gun at Dale's head.

His arm is shaking.

He can't do it.

Daryl comes in from the side and takes the gun.

The crying grows louder.

"Sorry brother." Daryl says.

He pulls the trigger and Dale is no longer with us.


	12. Chapter 12

**OMFG DO YOU GUYS REALIZE THAT AFTER THIS CHAPTER THE FARM IS GOING TO BE OVER RUN IVE BEEN WANTING TO WRITE THAT CHAPTER OUT SINCE I STARTED WRITING OHHH THEN THE PRISON AND THE GOVERNOR AND I HAVE A BIG SURPRISE COMING UP :DDDDDDDDDDD**

* * *

"Dale could sure get under your skin, he sure got under mine. That's because he wasn't afraid to say how he felt, that kind of honesty is rare and brave, whenever I had to make a decision, I look at Dale," Rick said.

We were at a memorial service for Dale.

He had joined the others who were buried after the farm incident.

"he'd be looking back at me with the look he had, we've all seen it one time or another. I couldn't always read him but he could read us , he saw people for who they were, he knew things about us the truth that we really are. In the end he was talking about loosing our humanity, he said this group was broken, the best way to honor him is to un-break it, set aside our differences and work together. Set aside our differences and pull together, stop feeling sorry for ourselves and take control of our lives. Our safety our future. We are not broken." Rick finished.

* * *

"It's be tight 16 people in one house." Rick says.

We were all outside by the truck.

Hershel had decided to let us move in his house for the winter.

"Don't worry about that." Hershel replied.

"With the swamp hardening, the creek drying up with 50 head of cattle on the property, we might as well be ringing a damn dinner bell." Maggie added.

"She's right. Should've moved in the rest of you a while ago." Hershel says.

I smiled.

"Alright let's move the vehicles near each of the doors, facing toward road." Rick ordered.

The group breaks up and Rick starts handing out separate jobs.

"...We'll build a lookout in the windmill, another in the barn loft.  
That should give us sightlines both sides of the property..." He said.

I caught up with Angel who was looking a little pale.

Well paler than usual anyways.

"What's wrong?" I asked her.

"Nothing. Everything's fine." She lied.

Alright then if she wants to play the I'm-pretending-I'm-not-okay-but-I-want-somebody-to-care-because-I-like-attention game she wasn't gonna get it.

* * *

I was walking back to house by myself when I heard a little of Rick and Andreas conversation.

"You want me to babysit Shane and Rachel?" Andrea asked in disbelief.

"I need to know that when I leave all, hell doesn't break lose." Rick replies.

"Then stop leaving." Andrea says.

They stop walking.

Silence.

Andrea turns around and begins walking in the other direction.

"Will you keep an eye on things?" Rick asks.

"Of course." She replies.

* * *

Rick is putting some wood on the back of the pickup truck when I walk over to him.

He glances at me but doesn't say anything.

"So you want Andrea to start watching me cause you think I'm crazy huh?" I said breaking the silence.

"I didn't say that." He said.

"But you were thinking it weren't you?" I said back.

"You know Hershel's putting me on medication for that. He gave me these bluish yellow pills that are supposed to call you down or something."

"Don't get carried away you're not crazy." He replied.

He stopped putting the wood in the truck and went up in front of me.

I was just a few inches shorter than him.

"I think you can control your it." He said.

"Yeah Dale told me that too. He would remind me everyday." I said with a light laugh.

It was silent for a moment.

I locked eyes with him just for a moment.

"Talk to Hershel about those pills. You don't need them." He says getting back to getting wood.

I was going to talk to Hershel soon.

* * *

The group was moving in all of their belongings inside Hershel's house.

Angel and I had already been sleeping in the house so we didn't really have to set up.

Just move a few things.

"The men sleep in there." Lori says to someone.

She was carrying a big bag.

I went over to help her.

"Let me help you with that." I said taking the bag from her arms.

"Thank you." She said with relief.

She took a deep breath.

"You alright?" I asked her.

"Yeah just," she paused for a moment.

"A lot of heavy stuff." She said lightly laughing.

"Okay." I said awkwardly.

She went back outside to get more things.

I went into the kitchen and saw a sad looking Glenn as Maggie left the kitchen.

"Are you guys fighting or something?" I asked him.

"No." He replies.

"What do you do when a girl asks you to sleep with her?" He asks nervously.

"Well first you offer some protection, then you take off her-" I began.

"No I mean like...sleep, sleep." He says quietly.

"Oh," I said.

I sighed.

"Well if she was your girlfriend which in this case she is, sleep with her." I said.

"It'd be like protecting her with your arm around her and those sweet kisses to her-"

"Okay thanks." He says. He turned a light shade if pink.

"Your welcome." I said.

* * *

Rick, Daryl, and I were on the porch planning where to dump Randall next.

He'd leave him there this time.

"Take him out to Senoia, hour there, hour back, give or take. We may lose the light, but we'll be halfway ho by then." Rick says pointing at the map on the porch railing.

"This little pain in the ass will be a distant memory, good riddance." Daryl said.

"Can't wait." I said putting my hands on my head.

"Carol's putting together some provisions for him, enough to last a few days." Rick says turning to look at both of us.

In the drive way in front of the porch a car drives around.

"That thing you did last night," Rick says turning to Daryl.

"Ain't no reason you should do all the heavy lifting." Daryl replies.

_Bromance_.

"So are both of you good with all this?" He asks the both of us.

I nod.

"I don't see you and I trading haymakers on the side of the road." Daryl replies.

The car in the drive way makes a stop then parks.

"Nobody'd win that fight." Daryl says.

Shane gets out of the car and starts coming towards us.

"I'm gonna go take a piss." Daryl says walking off the porch in a hurry.

He obviously didn't want part of Rick and Shane's conversation.

Neither did I.

"I have to uhh go take my pills." I said walking off the porch after Daryl.

Rick and Shane's conversations always turned into an argument.

From what I've heard from them, they were both officers.

And best friends.

I thought back to my old best friend, Marlene.

I ended up having to shoot her.

* * *

I walked inside the house to see if anybody needed some help.

I walked inside the kitchen and saw Maggie sitting on the table.

She looks up.

"Rachel I need some advice." She says.

I pull out a chair for myself and sit in front of her.

"What's up?" I asked.

Let's get real here, who's gonna actually take advice from a crazy bitch like me?

_Glenn did._

"It's about Glenn." She says fiddling with her fingers.

Here we go again.

"Okay, what's wrong?" I ask.

She sighs.

"Do you think I'm a distraction to him?" She asks.

She looks back down at her fingers.

"No. He loves you. A lot. I can tell by the way he looks at you and the way he acts around you." I said.

She looks back up with a small smile.

"Really?" She asks.

"Totally." I said.

"Thanks Rachel." She says as she gets up and heads outside.

"No problem." I said.

She had already left.

Alrighty then.

* * *

I was outside hammering wood boards on the windows.

Since we're all gonna be living under one roof, it's best we keep it safe.

Beth's boyfriend Jimmy kept starring at me for some reason.

It was really starting to pissing me off.

"You got a mother fucking problem with me or something?" I ask getting in his face.

His back hits the wall as he begins to back up.

"Noo...u-um." He says turning red.

I rolled my eyes and went back to boarding.

Dumb prick.

I looked over at the shed and saw Rick and Carl talking on the roof.

I wonder what it's like to have a son.

Must be hard.

I caught him starring at me again.

"Okay I'm done if you look at me one more time I will shoot you in the face."

* * *

I was sitting outside the shed babysitting Randall.

We were gonna take him farther away from here in just half an hour.

He would rattle the handcuffs around his hands occasionally and try to talk through the tape over his mouth.

Dumbass.

Shane was walking towards the shed.

"Hey Rachel you got a minute." He asks looking around.

I walked over to him.

"What do you want?" I asked him.

"Let me tell you something you want him dead right?" He asks.

"Yeah so? Rick is gonna take him somewhere and dump him off." I replied.

"Let me go in there and uh talk to him real quick." He said.

"Fine. I'll give you five minutes." I said.

* * *

We ended up dragging Randall along the grass.

We were gonna kill him quickly in the woods.

It was still daytime.

Randall started to whine through the tape around his mouth.

"Shhh go that way." Shane says.

"You're gonna let me kill him right?" I ask Shane.

"Mmh." He replies.

Shane pushes him and he falls.

He leans down on the floor and pulls of the bandana.

"Hey hey c'mon now." He says.

"I bet we're the last faces you probably wanna see huh?" He asks.

Randall was breathing heavily through his nose.

Shane takes off the tape from his mouth.

"Don't do nothing stupid." Shane says to him.

"Ahh ahh." Randall whines.

"Shh."

"Ahh ahh."

Shane grabs Randall's jaw.

"Hey hey keep it quiet."

Shane looks around.

"Your group- you know where they're at?" Shane asks him.

"No, I don't. I really-" he was cut off.

Shane smacked him in the head.

"Ow! Okay."

"Get your little ass up here. Now we're the only shots of you getting out of these woods alive. You hear me? Now you start talking, boy. Where are they at?" Shane asks him.

"Where are they at?" I ask.

"We had a camp set up off the highway,"

"Okay."

"About five miles from here." Randall finishes, his voice growing a little louder and calmer.

"Shh- Okay." I said.

"Who knows if they're still there." Randall adds.

"Okay. So you gonna take us to 'em?" Shane

"Why?" Randall asks.

"Because, man, I- I'm just- I'm done with this group, man." Shane replies.

"They're doomed and we want no part of it that's all." I said looking at Shane.

"So you're not goin to kill me?" Randall asks.

"Come on, man. If I was, you'd be dead." Shane replies.

He picks him up roughly.

"Come on." He says pushing him forward.

"Hey, you ain't gotta be so rough.  
We're on the same side now." Randall says.

We started walking a little longer.

"You're gonna like it with us." Randall says.

Poor kid. He actually thinks we want to join him and his group.

Idiot.

"Gets a little crazy sometimes but it's a tough bunch of guys you'll fit in good." He says to both of us.

We keep looking around to make sure no ones watching us.

"Less talkin' more walkin'." Shane says.

"Look, I run my mouth when I get nervous. I can't help it. I got a lot going on, you know?" Randall replies calmly.

He's acting as if we've been friends since before the apocalypse.

"It ain't all about you." Shane replies.

"Ok grab his jaw from the end and twist it as hard as you can." He whispers.

I go up to Randall.

"...I ain't saying it's about me I just-" he gets cut off.

"Ahh!"

I grabbed the end of his jaw and twist it.

The crack of his bones breaking is heard.

He fell to the ground.

That was the real real end of Randall.

"It's done." I said with a smile

We stand their in silence.

Then Shane walks himself into a tree.

His nose starts bleeding.

"What the hell?" I ask.

"We need to make the story believable don't we?" He replies.

* * *

Shane and I see the group worrying about Randall when we come back into the woods entrance.

We stare at them for a minute just watching them freak out.

He bends down.

He grabs some dirt and rubs it on himself.

"Here rub yourself." He says.

I bend down and rub some dirt on my face.

"Ready?" I ask.

He nods.

We wait a few seconds before showing up.

"Rick!" Shane yells.

"Rick!" I yelled.

We walk to the camp where everybody else is.

"What happened?!" Lori yells.

"He's armed! He's got mine and Rachel's guns!" He yells back.

"You okay?" Beth asks.

"I'm fine just little bastard snuck up on me and clocked me in the face!" Shane yells.

"Alright Hershel, T-dog get everybody inside the house. Glenn, Daryl come with us." Rick says.

I loved when he got serious.

"That was the plan, wasn't it, to just let him go?" Carol comments.

This bitch.

"The plan was to cut him loose far away from here, not on our front step with a gun." Rick replies.

She takes a step back.

"Don't go out don't know what can happen!" Angel yells.

"Get everybody back in the house.  
Lock all the doors and stay put!" Rick yells back.

"Let's go, back in the house." everybody murmurs.

We start to walk into the woods.

We walk a few yards into the woods and stop.

We start to reload our guns.

I pull out my backup gun on my hostler and reload it.

"I saw him head up through the trees that way before I blacked out." Shane says pointing somewhere .

"I'm not sure how long." He adds.

"He couldn't have gotten far," Rick comments.

"He's hobbled, exhausted." Rick says.

"And armed." Glenn adds.

"So are we." I say.

"Can You track him?" Rick asks Daryl.

"Naah I don't see nothing." He replies inspecting the floor

"Hey, look, there ain't no use in tracking him, okay? He went that way. We just need to pair up chase him down that's it." Shane says.

"Kid weighs a buck 25 soaking wet You trying to tell us he got the jump on you?" Daryl asks not amused.

"I say a rock pretty much evens those odds, wouldn't you?" Shane replies.

"Alright, knock it off. Rachel and Daryl You start heading up the right flank," Rick orders.

"Glenn you take north and Shane and I will take left." Rick finished.

"Remember Randall's not the only threat out there, keep an eye out on each other." Rick states.

I look back at Shane one more time.

Was this part of the plan?

* * *

Daryl and I had gotten pretty deep into the forest.

We would aim out weapons at any little noise.

Daryl would occasionally look down at the floor for tracks.

"Who taught you how to track?" I asked him breaking the silence.

"My dad. One of the only good things he taught me." He replies.

I nod.

"What about you? Who taught you how to shoot?" He asks.

"My dad. He was a police officer a few years before I was born. When I was old enough he took me and my older sister Melissa out hunting."

"I shot my first bear there." I added.

He nodded.

We continued walking.

"I know you killed Otis." He said.

Fuck.

Busted.

How the hell did he find out?

Please it's Daryl Dixon we're talking about here.

"Whaaat?" I replied trying to deny it.

"Don't give me any of that bullshit." He says.

"Shane tells some story about how he covered his ass, comes back with the dead guys gun." He continues.

"We had no choice." I said flatly.

He laughs.

"See that's the thing, you did." He said.

I rolled my eyes.

"You would've done the same thing." I said starting to get a little pissed.

"I would've-" he stopped talking as soon as we heard a tree branch break.

We aimed at where the noise was coming from for a moment.

He put down his crossbow.

"Let's keep walking." He says.

* * *

We had been walking for a few hours and my legs were killing me.

Plus it was already night and it was getting harder to see.

"Can we go back to the house now?" I whined.

He didn't respond he just kept in walking.

He stopped walking.

"Why did you stop?" I whispered.

He points down at the floor.

"Tracks. A whole bunch of them. Looks like Shane and Randall went on longer than he said." Daryl adds.

How the hell did he see that? The only light visible was the moonlight.

"Hold on. There's more tracks." He said.

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"It means there was more than two people here." He says.

Crap crap crap crap.

"Give me a light." He says.

I turned on the flashlight and pointed it at the floor.

"Hello trouble." He says as he picks up Randall's bandana.

Shit shit shit shit.

We slowly start walking forwards again.

We hear a branch break again.

We quickly hide behind a tree.

It was a walker this time.

It was stumbling and moaning a few feet away from us.

My heart was pounding.

It was only a matter of time before Daryl finds out.

The walker is now in my reach.

It doesn't seem to notice me or Daryl.

"I got this one." I whisper to him.

I take out my knife and quickly stab it.

Before it has any time to react its dead. Again.

I pull out my knife from its head and it falls to the floor.

I turned on my flashlight and point it at the walker.

It's Randall.

I drop the flashlight in shock and cover my mouth.

But how?

He wasn't bit.

"Shine that flashlight over here." He says leaning down on Randall.

I pick up the flashlight and shine it at Randall.

Daryl is inspecting his body.

Looking for any bites.

"Can't find any bites but his neck is broken." Daryl says.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck.

"What does that mean?" I ask.

"It means he didn't die from a walker he died from this." He said pointing at the neck.

* * *

We went back to the farm.

The minute Shane gets here I was gonna tell him about this.

I heard a gunshot in the distance.

I started pacing faster and faster on the porch.

"Hey Rachel," Beth says from behind me.

I stop pacing and I greet her.

"I wanted you to have this." She says handing me a black jacket.

I take it from her finger the fabric.

"It doesn't fit me. Thought it'd fit you." She says.

I take off my fading green jacket and try on the black one.

Perfect fit.

"Thanks." I said.

She nodded and walked back inside.

I saw Carl and Rick walking back to the farm.

With no Shane.


	13. Chapter 13

**So you guys must know how I excited I was to write this chapter. I tried to make this the best chapter ever because personally I love the farm being over run I love them discovering the prison :DDDDDD plus I have a surprise in this chapter (hint hint) and then we get closer to Lori's death yay! Oh uh I mean darn! Anyways major character deaths ahead! Thanks for reading and keep reviewing! Love you guys xoxox thanks for over 1000 views :')**

* * *

I hop of the porch and jog to them.

The dark night skies was making it hard to see.

Although the moonlight was faintly glowing.

"Show did Shane die?" Carl asks.

"What?!" I yell.

Rick looks down.

He doesn't respond.

The gunshot.

Did Rick shoot Shane?

Was Shane planning on killing Rick?

Did Shane turn into a walker? Is that why Rick shot him?

"H-how...w-why..." I sputter out.

I start breathing a little faster.

I could hear faint walkers growling.

We turned around hoping to see only one walker.

It's more than one.

More than the herd when we first met.

And they were headed directly to the farm.

"Oh my god." Rick says quietly.

He starts pushing us away from view off the walkers.

We start running, following Rick.

We stop in front on a wide tree.

A dark shadow covering us.

"How are we gonna get to the house?" Carl asks shakily.

"We'll never get through that." Rick replies.

He looks at the barn a few yards away.

He starts running to it and me and Carl follow.

"Stay close, go!" Rick yells.

We start running to barn.

A few walkers that have already made it over the perimeter of the farm see us.

They begin to growl and try to catch our arms.

We quickly run through them as Carl squeezes my arm.

Rick opens the barn doors and lets both of us in.

He joins us inside and slams the barn doors shut.

A few walkers begin gnawing and growling at the door.

Rick puts a metal bar over the door handles.

The growling fries louder and the banging gets harder.

We back up into the hay.

Then she came to my mind.

Angel.

"Rick I have to go get Angel!" I say as I make my way to the door.

"You can'tIt's to dangerous." He says getting in front of me.

"No I have to get her!" I reply trying to get through him.

"Rachel you can't!" He says holding me back.

I back up in defeat.

This was bullshit.

What about everybody else? Were we just gonna leave them there for dead? Angels gonna be fine I tell myself.

Rick looks off somewhere thinking about something.

The banging on the wooden doors get louder and harder.

Rick runs over to the end of the barn.

Carl and I follow.

"Take these gasoline barrels and dump them on the floor. Don't hesitate, spill everything." Rick says handing each of us a barrel.

We go into the center of the barn and we begin emptying the gasoline barrels all over the hay floors.

The walkers start breaking the wooden panels off the barn.

Their arms started hanging through the open spots and their faces growling with lust to feed on us.

"Alright. Okay go upstairs." Rick tells us.

"What about you?" Carl asks.

"I'll be fine." He reassures.

He hands me a lighter.

"Drop the lighter when I say." He says.

I nod.

"That'll stop some of them from reaching the house so at least we'll have a chance." He continues.

"Hey hey look at me, you can do this," Rick says putting his hand on carls face.

"Carl, I love you." He says.

That was an 'aww' moment even for me.

"Alright go go go." He tells us.

Carl climbs up the ladder and I follow after him.

"It's gonna be alright your dad is tough." I say to him when we get to the top.

Rick opens the barn doors.

Over a dozen walkers all pour in at once coming after Rick.

He starts yelling at them, leading them deeper into the barn.

"C'mon! Over here!" Rick yells at them.

He starts climbing up the ladder.

"C'mon!" He yells at the walkers.

"Rachel now!" He yells.

I ignite the fire.

I let it go and watch as the walkers are engulfed in flames.

Their skin begins to turn black and their growls grow louder in pain.

Rick comes over and stands next to us.

From down below closer to the farm I hear gunshots and car engines.

No.

They've already reached the farm.

We start scooting back into a little opening on the back of the farm.

"Hey!" Rick yells to the RV in the distance.

"Hey over here!" I yell.

The RV drives across the field and stops directly under us.

"Park it right there c'mon!" Rick yells.

We walk over a thin piece off wood and hop on the RV roof.

Rick and I get climb off the RV on the ladders on the back.

I take out my pistol and begin gunning down walkers.

I look across the field trying to see if I can get a glimpse of Angel

She's not in sight.

I separate from Rick and Carl and run into the field.

There was walkers in every direction.

Gunshots were being fired all over the place.

There's cars driving around all over the place going crazy.

Some had our group members shooting out through the windows.

The moonlight and the barn are the only sources of light at the moment.

I shoot more and more.

"Angel!" I yell hoping she'll hear me.

I look around and don't see her.

"Angel!" I yell again as I shot at a walker.

I run over to Hershel stepping on walkers who were gunned down in the process.

When I get to Hershel he's firing at walkers with a shotgun.

"Where the hell is Angel?!" I ask as we both start shooting down walkers.

"Inside with the girls." He replies not taking his eyes off his target.

Oh thank god.

I start shooting alongside with him.

Bam. Bang. Boom.

They just kept coming.

"Carl!" Lori yells from behind me.

'He's with Rick' I yell in my mind.

"Hershel!"

"Hershel!"

"Hershel it's time to go!"

"Hershel go!" I yell while I shoot another walker.

He doesn't react. He just continues firing at them.

Lori keeps yelling at him.

I separate from Hershel and I run off into the center gunning down as many walkers as I can.

There was too many of them.

I kill one and another one comes behind it to replace it.

I was going to run out of ammo pretty soon.

I had never seen so many of them all at once.

A car drives by behind me.

"Get in!" Glenn yells as the car comes to a stop.

I shoot my last walker and open the backseat car door and I jump in and slam the door.

"Follow them!" I yell pointing to the car Lori got in.

Angel has to be with her.

"Whoa whoa." Glenn says.

Walkers start crowding car.

"I can't get through." Maggie says, fear in her voice.

"Get off! Get off the farm now. It's lost!" Glenn yells at her.

"Don't say that! There's others we can't leave them!" She yells.

"Just drive!" I say pulling the lever and putting the car in reverse

Maggie starts screaming and she begins driving backwards.

"Get off the farm now!" Glenn yells.

She begins driving forwards, smashing every walker in her path.

Maggie starts crying as she drives.

I slump into my seat and think about Angel.

I'm praying to god that she's with Lori. The amount of adrenaline going through my body at the moment was not healthy. I was at the moment worried for everybody, even Andrea. Angel was the only person on my mind. What if she didn't make it? What if she became walker food?

I begin crying silently.

"Don't worry she's gonna be okay." Glenn reassures looking back at me.

I really hope he was right.

Maggie drives into the woods away from the walker infested farm.

We are finally out of the farm.

All the walkers are behind us.

We're all breathing heavily.

I just hope everybody made it out alive.

* * *

"Oh my god." Maggie says.

It was already dawn outside.

"Let's just-let's just circle back to the highway." Glenn says.

"Did you see my dad? Did did he make it? - Did you see?" Maggie sputters.

"I couldn't see anything." Glenn replies.

"And Beth I lost Beth. We've gotta go back there." Maggie says turning to Glenn.

We had lost the car we planned on following.

As off right now we had no destination.

"We can't go back, okay? There's nothing to go back to." Glenn replies.

"But Beth I-I I think she was with Lori and Angel." Maggie says letting fresh tears roll down her cheeks.

"Did they make it?" Maggie asked.

"I don't know." Glenn replies.

"Patricia? Jimmy? What if they didn't make it? What if nobody made it?" Maggie says, voice cracking.

She starts shaking her head as she wipes away a tear.

She puts her hand back on the steering wheel.

"They made it, okay? They had to." I said to her.

"All right, let's just circle around to the highway where we left supplies for Sophia." Glenn says.

He tried to act like if he knew what he was doing but deep inside I knew he was equally as worried.

"The herd came from that direction." I commented flatly.

Maggie let more tears slide down as she cried harder.

"Stop the car. Stop the car. Let me drive." Glenn says.

"Hey hey hey hey."

"Hey, Maggie, look at me. Look at me," Glenn says.

Maggie stops the car and continues crying.

"Hey, we're alive. We made it. Okay? I'm sure they are, too." He says reassuring her.

Maggie doesn't reply.

Glenn looks at me.

I nod.

"I love you. Maggie I love you. I should've said it a long time ago and it's been true for a long time.

We're gonna be all right, okay? We'll be all right." He says.

She looks at him and faintly smiles.

"Okay." She says nodding.

She opens the drivers door and Glenn opens the passengers door and they switch seats.

No kiss?

* * *

We start to pull up in a familiar highway.

I look outside my window and see Rick, Carl and Hershel.

There's more cars.

We made it.

Glenn parks the car and we all get out quickly.

Everybody reunites with their loved ones as hugs are being passed around.

Angel gets lose from Lori's grip and runs over and hugs me.

I hug her back never wanting to let go.

She starts crying into my black jacket.

Lori goes over to Rick and Carl and Maggie to Beth and Hershel.

"I thought I lost you." She says.

"I'm still here." I reply.

I look over at Glenn who wasn't hugging anybody.

Poor Glenn.

I pull apart from the hug and keep an arm around her.

We all get into a wide circle as we try to find who's here and who's not.

"Where'd you find everyone?" Rick asks Daryl.

"Someone had their tales zigzagging all over the road, figured it had to be an Asian driving like that." Daryl replies.

We all share a small laugh.

Angel wipes away a tear.

"Good one." Glenn replies.

"Where's the rest of us?" Daryl ask looking around the circle.

"We're the only ones who made it so far." Rick responds.

"Shane?" Lori asks.

Rick shakes his head.

Lori looks at the floor with a straight face.

"Andrea?" Glenn asks.

"She saved me then I lost her." Carol says.

"We saw her go down." T-dog comments.

"Patricia?" Hershel asked.

"They got her too, took her from me." Beth says getting closer to Hershel's chest.

She starts crying.

"What about jimmy did you see Jimmy?" Beth asks.

"He was in the RV, he got overrun." Rick replies.

_"Okay I'm done if you look at me one more time I will shoot you in the face."_

I suddenly regretted telling him that.

"You defiantly saw Andrea?" Carol asks.

"There were walkers everywhere." Lori replies.

"Did you see her?" Carol asks again.

"I'm gonna go back." T-Dog says picking up his gun.

"No." Rick says.

"We can't just leave her." Daryl interjects.

"We don't know if she's there." Lori comments.

"She's isn't there she isn't she's somewhere else if she's dead we're not gonna find her." Rick adds.

"We're not even gonna look for her?" Glenn asks.

I don't mind not having Andrea.

"We gotta keep moving there's walkers crawling all over here." I say.

"I say head east." T-Dog says.

"Stay off the main roads the bigger the roads the more assholes like this one. I got him." Daryl says.

He takes out his crossbow and makes a head shot.

I didn't even notice that walker.

* * *

We all get into our cars and start driving.

I join Glenn, Maggie, Beth, Hershel and Angel in one car.

Glenn and Maggie are in the front seats while I'm huddled with with Hershel, Beth, and Angel.

Angel grabs my arm and hugs it.

Alrighty.

"I'm sorry about your farm." I say to Hershel with sympathy.

"It's not my farm anymore." He replies.

I look outside my window and see trees and grass.

Miles of them just everywhere.

The sun started to emerge from out of the clouds and become more visible.

A car honks it's horn signaling us to stop.

Glenn stops the car and pulls over.

We individually get out from the cars we came in.

"You out?" Hershel asks Rick who honked the horn.

"I'm running on fumes." Rick replies.

"We can't stay here." Maggie states.

"We can't all fit in one car." Glenn adds.

"We'll have to run for gas in the morning." Rick says.

"Spend the night here?" Carol asks.

"I'm freezing." Carl comments.

"We'll build a fire yeah?" Lori says to him.

Rick goes over to Carl an hands him his jacket.

"We're gonna go out looking for fire wood stay close. There's only so many arrows. How are you doing on ammo?" Daryl asks.

"Low." I reply.

"Not enough." Rick says after me.

"We can't just sit here with our asses hanging out." Maggie says.

"Watch your mouth." Hershel warns.

"Everyone stop panicking and listen to Rick." Hershel reassures.

"Alright well set up a perimeter in the morning we'll find gas and some supplies we'll keep pushing on." Rick says.

"Glenn and I can go make a run now, try and scrounge up some gas." Maggie suggests.

"No. We'll stay together. God forbid for one of us to get stranded with no car." Rick replies.

"Rick we're stranded now." I say.

"I know it looks bad, we've all been through hell and worse but at least we found each other," Rick begins.

"I wasn't sure I really wasn't but we did. Together we keep it that way." Rick finishes.

"We'll find shelter somewhere there's gotta be a place." Rick says.

"Rick look around okay there's walkers everywhere they're migrating or something." I say.

"And even if we do find a place," Maggie says shaking her head. "We can never be sure for how long."

"Look at what happened to the farm." Angel agrees.

"We fooled ourselves into thinking that that was safe." Maggie says, and I wonder what this is like for her and her family. They had been living on that farm almost their whole lives.

"We won't make that mistake again." Hershel says, looking at Maggie, I can see in his eyes he is over his delusion of walkers just being sick.

"We'll make camp tonight. Over there." Rick says, pointing at a structure.

"Get on the road at the break of day."

"Does this feel right to you?" I hear Carol say, she sounds close to me, I look up and saw she was talking to Daryl.

"What if walkers come through?" I hear Beth say, this is probably the most I've ever heard her say to be honest. "Or another group like Randall's?"

"You know we found Randall, right?" Daryl's comments.

I stiffened.

"He'd turned, but he wasn't bit." He continued.

Memories of me snapping Randall's neck in the woods with Shane came flooding back into my head.

"How's that possible?" Beth asks.

How is that possible?

Was their something Rick wasn't telling us?

"Rick, what the hell happened?" Lori demanded.

"Shane killed Randall." Daryl says, with confidence. "Just like he always wanted to."

I felt sick to my stomach.

"And then the herd got him?" asks Lori. They are all looking at Rick.

His facial expressions tell me that there's something he doesn't want to tell us.

"We're all infected." Rick finally says.

"We all carry it."

Something settles over the group. They all look at Rick in disbelief and complete shock.

"What?" I ask.

This wasn't making any sense to me.

How did he find out?

"I found out right before we left the CDC. Jenner said that this when I found out about the walkers in the barn, I told, for the good of everyone!"

"Well, I thought it best that people didn't know." He replies.

I wasn't there with them at the CDC so I'm not all that pissed. I don't even know what went down there either.

Rick storms off leaving the group in shock.

So we're all infected. No matter what we'll turn.

* * *

Even around the fire it was cold. Angel was sitting next to me, her head leaning on my shoulder.

I watched as the fire danced around the wood. On occasion it would blow one direction as the cool wind hit it.

The cold night air blew threw my hair as Angel scooted closer to me, blanket around her body.

It was so quiet though. Nobody was talking. Rick was off wandering off somewhere.

"Rachel,Daryl?" Carol says.

We all turn to look at her.

"Why do you need him? He's just gonna pull you down." Carol says.

"Nah. Rick's done alright by me."

"If you haven't noticed he's kinda the leader of this group." I said rolling my eyes.

"You're his henchman. And I'm a burden. We deserve better." She says.

I laugh.

"This bitch." I said with a light laugh.

"What do you want?" Daryl asks, sounding very annoyed.

"A man of honor." She says.

I laugh again.

"Well Carol if you haven't noticed, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Rick. He's done more for this group than Shane could have ever done. Stop acting like you can call the shots around here okay? So shut up." I said in her face.

Everything went silent.

She maintained a straight face.

"Sorry. I-I haven't taken my pills today." I said gently.

She nods.

"I've really been trying hard not to get into trouble but I...I've got a war in my mind." I add.

It was my dream life versus reality.

My sanity versus reality.

From behind me I hear a tree branch break.

"What was that?" Beth asks.

She huddles closer to Hershel.

"Could be anything." Daryl says, standing up and grabbing his crossbow.

"Could be a raccoon, could be a opossum-."

"A walker?" Glenn says. Way to keep everybody calm.

I stand up and grab my gun.

"We need to leave!" Carol says, everyone looks at her. "I mean, what're we waiting for?"

"Which way?" asks Glenn.

"It came from over there." Maggie says, pointing her gun barrel in the direction we just came from.

"The last thing we need is for everyone to be running off in the dark." Rick says joining us. "We don't have the vehicles and no one is travelling on foot."

I stand next to Daryl with our weapons ready.

"I'm not waiting for another herd to come through." Maggie says.

"We need to move, now!"

"No one is going anywhere!" Rick says, anger growing his voice.

"Do something!" Carol says. That was the final straw for Rick. Just like that, his calm snapped.

"I am doing something! I'm keeping this group together, together!" he starts pacing. Everyone is staring at him. Ive never seen Rick snap.

"I've been doing that all along, no matter what." His voice went back to normal. "I didn't ask for this!" He yells in a hushed voice. "I killed my best friend for you people, for Christ's sake!"

So Rick killed Shane.

Shane wasn't bitten.

Shane became a walker.

They all looked shocked, confused, scared.

He kept pacing in anger.

"You saw what he was like!" He says, not looking at anybody.

"How he pushed me! How he compromised us, how he threatened us!" Rick yells looking at Lori.

"He staged the whole Randall thing, led me out to put a bullet in my back. He gave me no choice!"

"I bet Rachel was on it too! Did you know?!" He asks me.

I stand up in my defense.

"I didn't know! All we did was take Randall out to the woods and Shane let me kill him-" I stopped.

I covered my mouth with my hands.

Fuck.

"You killed Randall?" Beth asks shocked.

The group went silent.

There was no going back now.

I either told them the truth which was already partially spoken or be kicked out of the group into the woods.

I swallowed.

"Yes, I killed Randall," I said gently looking at the floor.

"But I swear he did not say anything about wanting to kill you. He only mentioned killing Randall. When we were in the woods and he got so persistent about wanting to get you alone with him I knew something was up," I say looking up at Rick.

I could hear Angel beginning to cry.

"And if I knew, you know I would've done anything to prevent it." I said.

He looked at me with disappointment.

"Give me your gun." He says.

"What?" I ask.

"Give me your gun." He asks louder.

I grab my gun from my hostler and hand it to him.

He takes it out off my hands with force.

Now all I have is my knifes.

He must be beyond pissed. I'm probably not going to see my gun for a while.

"Go sit down." He says a little calmer.

I sat back down next to Angel.

"Do you see now?" Carol whispers to me.

"He was my friend, but he came after me." I could hear Carl crying. Lori holds him tight. "My hands are clean." Rick said, his voice hard.

The camp fell silent again. I'm guessing this side of Rick is very rare judging by the look on Lori's face.

Rick made laughed emotionlessly.

"Hell, maybe you people are better off without me." He gestures at the woods behind him.

"Go ahead!" He yells.

Nobody moves.

"I say there's a place for us, but maybe maybe I'm fooling myself again."

I get that he's angry but he didn't have to take it out on all of us.

What the hell am I saying? I've been taking out my anger on my family almost my entire life.

I see where he's coming from now.

"Why don't you go? Why don't you go and find out for yourself! Send me a postcard!" He continues.

Nobody moves again.

He'll get over it. He's just blowing off some steam.

"Go on! There's the door. You can do better? Let's see how far you get!"

There is silence going around as nobody moves again.

Rick was looking around at everyone of us.

"No takers? Fine!" Rick takes a single step forward.

The seriousness.

"But get one thing straight. This isn't a democracy anymore." He finishes.

* * *

_7 months later._

Ever since the farm was overrun, we've been looking for a new safe haven.

We'd go scavenging houses and buildings thinking were safe but at the end we'd have to think twice.

I've gotten closer with the group.

I've been nicer, I've learned to be calm and more fortunate towards the them.

Just a few birthdays have passed.

Nothing more.

Right now Rick, Daryl, Carl, T-dog and I were searching for a new house to at least find some supplies.

Rick stops.

He points towards a white house into the distance.

He looks left then looks right.

"Clear." He says.

We run over to the house and Rick burst through the doors.

He guns a walker down.

It made no sound due to the soft pillow like covering he put over the gun.

The rest of us come in and T-dog kills another walker.

We all separate into different areas of the house trying to be as quiet as possible.

I enter a small with paintings hung all over the walls.

'The Guerra Family' one picture read.

The picture next to it had blood splatters and dirt.

It had a mom with a pet owl on her shoulder and a father cradling a small baby in his hands.

I felt bad kinda raiding their house.

Fuck it. They were dead anyways.

I exit the room and follow Daryl and T-dog up the stairs.

Daryl goes another direction and T-dog and I take the room across from the stairs.

We enter the room taking aim.

As it dawns to us that nothing is in the room other than regular things you'd see in a house we put our guns down.

I looked down at the blood stained sheets and gag.

"Check this out." T-dog says with a laugh throwing me a vibrator.

I laughed.

"I guess she was into the kinky stuff when he wasn't home." I say tossing the vibrator on the bed.

* * *

We walk back downstairs.

Daryl has a dead owl in his hands.

Rick whistles signaling the others to come in.

We enter an empty living room.

Everybody is bringing in heir supplies. Not too many though, just in case we have to run out of here.

Like we did with all the other places we thought were safe.

Lori comes in, holding her now bigger stomach.

Rick eyes her.

As the last of our group comes inside Rick closes the doors quietly.

No one says anything as we start to unpack lightly.

I pull out my water bottle and take a quick sip.

Carl comes in with cans of food.

I look closer at the label as he's walking and sitting down in a corner all by himself.

Owl food?

He starts opening the cans with a can opener and everybody stops what they're doing and they begin starring at him.

Rick walks over to him and grabs the can from his hands.

He takes a second to scan through the labels and he throws the can across the room.

The can hits the walk then the floor with a clang.

The group stayed quiet.

"Walkers." Angel says looking out the window.

Everybody is in a hurry to pack up their things again as we repeat our daily house cycle.

Will we ever feel completely safe again?

* * *

"Fifteen, you're on point." Rick says looking down at a map on a car hood.

"We got no place left to go." Hershel points out.

Maggie's says something back.

I try not to talk when they're taking about directions. I was never really good with directions. I always got lost.

"We'll never make it south." Maggie points out.

"What'd you say? It's about 150 ahead?" Daryl asks Glenn.

"That was last week, could be twice that by now." Glenn replies.

"This river could've delayed them." Hershel comments.

They started sharing their own directions and destinations but I kinda zoned out.

_"Robert come look at this." My mother says to my dad as she turns up the volume of our TV._

_They showed clips of these dirty looking people attacking and ripping the flesh off other people on the streets from a helicopter's camera._

_"It's probably some shit stunt by the government." Melissa interjects._

_"Is that going to happen here?" Angel asks nervously._

_I put an arm around her._

_"Of course not. The authority will handle it." I replied feeling a little unsure of my answer._

_"Yes it is gonna happen here. It's a zombie apocalypse. It's going to kill us all." Melissa comments._

_"Shut up." I whispered to her._

_She rolled her eyes._

_"It's true and you know it." She replies._

"We can't keep going house to house. We need some place to stay at for a few weeks." Rick says looking over at Lori.

Ugh she's the worst.

Why did she have to get pregnant?

I mean I know it's not her choice, but who even has time for sex during the apocalypse?

I stare at her for a little longer and see her rub her stomach.

What if it were to die and rip it's way out if her?

I have to stop those thoughts.

Lori was a human being. And Rick's wife and I had to respect that.

Even if I really didn't want to.

T-Dog says something about wanting to shower and the group splits up.

I was about to go talk to Lori but Angel beat me to it.

She says something that makes her laugh.

Pfft.

She was always better at socializing.

* * *

We followed Rick to a prison that he and Daryl discovered.

We were walking between the gates that separated the prisoners from the guards.

There was walkers gnawing at gates. We began running as more and more began piling the gates.

"Hurry!" Rick yells.

We make a turn and we end up running through a long passageway.

The sun was making me sweat through my jacket.

Daryl is the first to make it to the end off the passage way and he opens a tall gate door.

We all turn only to make it to a dead end.

"It's perfect." Rick says.

We all take a look around.

There's so much space and grass!

And they must have beds in the cell blocks!

Real mattresses.

"If we can shut that gate, prevent more from filling the yard, we can pick off these walkers. We'll take the field by tonight." Rick says turning to all if us.

"So how do we shut the gate?" Angel asks.

"I'll do it. You guys cover me." Rick replies.

"No." Lori says defensively.

"It's a suicide run." Carol adds.

"I'm the fastest." Glenn comments.

"No, you, Angel, Maggie, and Beth draw as many as you can over there. Pop 'em through the fence," Rick orders.

"Daryl and Rachel you go back to the other tower. Carol, you've become a pretty good shot." Rick says.

"Take your time." He says smoothly to Carol.

"We don't have a lot of ammo to waste." Rick states.

"Hershel, you and Carl take this tower." He finishes.

"All right. I'll run for the gate." Rick says.

* * *

Daryl, Carol and I make it to our tower and we begin gunning down as many walkers as we can as Rick makes his death run to try to shut down the gate.

"Come on! - Hey, come here! - Come on!" I hear the others yell from below, trying to draw the walker's attention.

Boom. Boom. Bang.

There was so many walkers dressed as prisoners.

The apocalypse must've hit early here.

My eyes widen as I watch three walkers go down with perfect head shots.

"Damn Carol." I comment.

Daryl and Carol laugh.

"This just keeps getting easier and easier." She replies.

The walkers begin to take their attention towards Rick.

I begin shooting faster and faster.

What are we without a leader?

"Hey, come here! Come on! Hey, come on! Come on! Come on!" They yell from below stabbing them on their heads.

"Hey, come on, over here! Hey, hey, hey! Come on, over here!"

I watch in amazement as Rick successfully shuts down the gates and we gun down the last walker standing.

We were a strong group.

* * *

As we reach the bottom of the guard tower, we begin to congratulate each other.

"Nice shooting." Daryl says extending his arms in fists for Carol and I to bump.

Carol and I laugh as we do.

"You're getting better and better." I say to Carol.

She laughs.

"You okay?"

"I haven't felt this good in weeks."

"Good."

"Oh! Oh! We haven't had this much space since we left the farm." Carol says jumping through the grass.

It was true. I hadn't felt this good since the farm.

And it made me happy.

"Whoooo! Mmm." Angel adds jumping along with Carol.

"Tomorrow we'll put all the bodies together." Rick says.

"Let's keep them away from that water." Hershel adds.

"Now, if we can dig a canal under the fence, we'll have plenty of fresh water. The soil is good. We could plant some seed," Hershel continues.

"Grow some tomatoes, cucumbers." He continues.

"Okay but for now, let's enjoy this!" I said skipping around the grass.

I heard a few chuckles.

"I don't think I've ever seen you this happy!" Carol says to me.

The others murmur in agreement.

"Progress." Maggie adds with a smile.

I twirl around until my eyes land on two walkers headed our direction.

Wait they aren't walkers.

It's two people.

I stop twirling.

Everybody else stops.

I gasped in horror as I recognized one of the girls walking towards us.

Melissa?

The group falls silent.

"Melissa!" Angel yells running over to give her a hug.

I'm speechless. My heart rate increases.

I begin to choke on my words.

My brain can't process what's going on.

Am I dreaming?

"The ole famous Melissa." Maggie says.

But Melissa wasn't alone.

She was with some blonde girl.

"Rachel look it's Melissa!" Angel yells.

She looks at me and I see her swallow.

I take a few steps towards her.

It gets quiet again.

She separates from Angel and she takes a few steps closer to me.

After all these months, here she was.

I don't even have time I react before she tackles me to the grass.

She's punching me and pulling my hair.

She picks me up and pushes me against the gate and takes out a knife.

Before I have any time to pull it from her hands, the knife is already through my stomach.

I gasp in pain.

Why wasn't anybody doing anything?

The knife feels like a thousand needles pushing against my skin all at once, ripping through my internal organs.

She pulls the knife out and steps back.

I slide on the gate with my back as I fall to the floor.

I'm breathing heavily.

The blonde girl that was with her immediately springs into action.

She grabs her backpack and begins to take our supplies.

I hear faint voices yelling at Melissa.

Carol, Maggie, the blonde girl, Angel and even Beth.

Rick is kneeled over me.

"Stay with me!" He says.

"You're gonna be fine!" He adds.

My vision blurred and that's the last thing I see before I black out.

* * *

**Rachel doesn't die. :D Ok I just wanted to say that everything the characters say is copied down word by word by me. Like I literally watch the episode and copy everything down word for word. It takes me bout and hour and half. But I do it for you guys 8)**


	14. Chapter 14

**Some of you hate on Rachel, and I'm here with the girl who she's based on laughing. :D**

* * *

I start to wake up and hear faint voices.

Then they become a little more clear.

A little more.

Bam.

They are crystal clear now.,

Angel is a few feet away from me crying her eyes out.

There's a blonde hovered over me, stitching up my wound and Hershel dabbing gauze over the edges.

Melissa is standing a few feet away from Angel and the group.

She's been this whole time. Our group is going to have to live with her.

There's many reasons to why she stabbed me. One, the last things I said to her before we separated weren't all that nice. Two, I tried to kill her. And three, she hates me. She's always hated me because my parents loved me more and they liked to show it.

"Bitch stabbed me." I choked out.

Angel let's out weak laugh through tears.

The blonde and Hershel stand up.

"Okay I've stopped the internal bleeding and I repaired your primary tissue. Luckily no organs were punctured deep enough. I suggest you rest for a few days then you can come back and I'll remove your stitches," she says wiping her hands on her capri khakis.

"Don't do anything extreme or it can trigger some internal bleeding." She says.

"Oh and you're gonna have to take these." She says tossing me a bottle of painkillers.

I try to stand up but I slipped on the pain.

Rick comes over and pulls me up.

"Are you a doctor?" Hershel asks.

"No, I'm a nurse. I've dealt with a few surgeries and deliveries." She says.

Rick and Lori exchange a look.

"I'm Jen." She adds sticking her hand out.

I slowly take it and shake it.

"Thanks Jen." I said awkwardly.

The camp falls silent.

"What are you doing here? What do you and your group want?" Melissa asks taking a step closer to me.

"I'm sure we negotiate something. Maybe we could split the pris-" Rick begins but gets cut of by my stingy older sister.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, you want me to split my prison?" She asks.

I rolled my eyes.

"Your prison?" Hershel asks.

She laughs.

"I got here first. It's mine." She replies.

She takes a look at the group. Her eyes lend on Lori.

This was the one time Lori's pregnancy helped us.

"You see that guard tower over there?" Melissa asks pointing at a guard tower we hadn't touched.

"That's mine. The rest is yours. Good luck with getting rid of those freaks." She says turning around and walking back to where she came from.

"Jennifer." She says as she snaps her fingers.

She smiles at us before packing up her things and going after Melissa.

When they are out of sight I walk over to Rick.

"We should burn down her guard tower." I say.

"Are you crazy? She just gave us a big percentage of the prison. We are not going to do anything to change her mind." Lori interjects.

"She's right. This could be a new home," Rick begins.

"We need it."

I rolled my eyes.

"It's not like she has any real power of the prison." I reply.

"Right now we should find somewhere to rest. Rachel and Lori could use it." Hershel says.

I put my hand over my wound.

Okay so Melissa is here. So is that one girl Jen.

But where was my ex fiancée?

* * *

By night, we were all settled in on the prisons field.

I sat around a fire with Melissa and Angel.

The group was sitting across from us in a separate camp fire on the prison yard.

Jen was with them.

"So...where's um Lance?" I ask Melissa.

She begins to laugh then stops.

"He's uh...he's gone." She says as she sniffles.

My heart sank.

"W-what?"

"We were entering the prison and -and one of those things grabbed him from me and I just," she said.

She looked as if she was having trouble breathing.

"I just-just couldn't." She says.

She began fanning herself with her hand.

Vain bitch.

She grabbed Angel and began hugging her.

I sighed in annoyance.

I looked of into the distant yard on the other side.

I noticed Rick circling the prison yard.

He had passed by us at least 3 times.

I decided to go over to him, leaving Melissa and Angel at the fire.

"Hey." I said when I caught up to him.

He didn't respond, he just kept on walking.

"Is this about what happened earlier?" I asked him.

"It's Lori." He replies.

Oh. Lori.

I sighed.

"She's pretty soon to you know popping." I said making a maneuver with my stomach hoping to get a laugh out from him.

I doesn't work.

"So it's about my sister being selfish about the prison and not knowing what's gonna happen with Lori when she gives birth." I say.

"How many women do you think died without modern technology?" He asks me.

I swallowed.

A lot of them.

"Uhh...a few." I reply.

"My child doesn't deserve this. They don't deserve to grow up in a world like this." He adds.

_Shane's child._

_Not yours Rick._

"Well we can't really do anything about it so." I said.

It was true. I counted on the government or the army to do something about this but when they fell so did my hope. Being around Rick now a days was like being next a depressed white girl.

I've enough family time. I wanna go back to my group.

"I'm gonna go to the campfire."

He didn't respond.

I walked to the group and plopped myself down next to Maggie.

Her and Beth were singing a song that I had never heard of before.

Their voices mixed so well together. Their love for each other was real. They were two sisters who loved and protected each other.

I wish I had that with my sisters.

When they finished singing Rick joined us. "I'll take watch over there." He says, pointing at the tower Hershel and Carl were in.

"Got a big day tomorrow."

Oh god not again. With my wound, lifting a gun and running were impossible without feeling immense pain.

"What do you mean?" Glenn asks.

I could that the group just wanted to rest.

Nothing more.

"Look, I know we're all exhausted. This was a great win. But we gotta push just a little bit more." He adds.

"Most of the walkers are dressed as guards and prisoners. Looks like this place fell pretty early. Could mean the supplies may be intact. They'd have an infirmary. A commissary."

"An armory?" Daryl asks.

I sighed.

"That'd be outside the prison itself, but not too far away. Warden's offices would have info on the location" He lists.

He sounded serious about this place. But how long would we be here before it was overrun like the other places?

"Weapons, food, medicine. This place could be a gold mine!" Rick continues.

"We're dangerously low on ammo." Hershel says.

"We'll run out before we make a dent." Hershel adds.

He was right. My ammo was dangerously low.

"That's why we have to go in there. Hand-to-hand." Rick says.

Was he crazy? Hand to hand?

"After all we've been through we can handle it, I know it." He looks at Carl for some reason.

Carl was growing up. He's not the little boy I saw the first time I saw him.

He's going to have to grow up in this world whether he liked it it not.

"These assholes don't stand a chance." Rick adds.

One of the many times I've heard him curse. When he did he was serious.

He steps away from the camp and walks to the side.

The group was quiet.

After half a minute Lori gets up and follows him.

I turn around and watch her go up to Rick.

She was ruining everything.

* * *

Rick, Daryl, Hershel, Maggie, Glenn, and T-Dog were going to go investigate the rest of the prison for walkers and such.

I was left with the other part of the group.

Rick wouldn't let me go because he was worried I could trigger some internal bleeding.

I begged and pleaded but no I had to stay and rest.

Ugh.

I felt like I was becoming a weak group member.

Fuck it.

I was lying down on my bed in a cell with Angel and Beth.

We had moved into cell block C.

"Do you think this can be a new home?" Beth asked.

Angel nodded.

"Yes. We are going to make so many memories here. And I know I'm going to babysit Lori's baby." Angel replied with a smile.

She was so adorable.

She's to young to die.

Lori walked in.

She sat down next to Beth.

"Can I talk to Rachel." She said.

We exchanged looks.

Beth and Angel got up and walked out.

I sat up straight and faces towards her.

"What's up." I said.

She took a deep breath.

"I talked to Hershel and Jennifer already. I think I lost the baby." She said flatly.

Her face showed so many emotions.

Sadness. Anger. Confusion. Fear.

I didn't reply.

She adjusted her shirt.

"What did they say?" I asked.

She licked her lips.

"They said that it was normal. But of this baby is dead and if we're all infected, it could rip its way out." She said.

Oh shit.

"No no no that don't happen." I said.

"I'm sorry I need to leave." She says getting up and putting a hand over nose.

She left.

What if it did die and decided to rip through her?

* * *

**Okay sorry this chapter was shitty. My notes page was deleted so I had to write by memory ugggghhhh D;**


	15. Author's note

**This isn't a chapter but I just wanted to say that before I write a chapter I watch the episode on my iPad and I write down the dialogue and action on my iPod and my iPad is no where in sight. I don't know where it's at and I don't know when I'll find it it when I'll update again. But I promise, the day I'll find it, I'll watch the episode and work on a new chapter (: ok bye guys for now**


	16. Chapter 16

**IM BACK (8 This chapter is extra long and I worked really hard on it too (x**

* * *

I saw a disappointed Carl leaning against the wall on the bottom floor.

I walked over to him.

"Hey." I said as I leaned on the wall with him.

"My mom doesn't appreciate me." He says looking down on the floor.

I know where he's coming from. My mom loved me but she despised my sister.

I glance over at Lori who isn't paying attention to us.

"Well she's your mom. Moms do shit like that." I replied ruffling his hair.

He smiled.

"How about later when I heal we'll go explore the prison. Just me and you." I suggested.

He shot up in excitement.

"Really?" He asks.

I nod.

He smiled again.

He was about to say something but Rick came telling.

"Open the door! It's Hershel! Carl!" Rick yells from outside the cell block.

Carl quickly runs over to the gates and fiddles with the keys.

We all huddle around Carl whose opening the gates.

As the doors open, Rick comes in pushing Hershel who was lying down on a wheeled metal table.

His lower leg was missing.

"Jennifer!" Maggie yells.

"Go go go! In there!" Rick yells as he leads Hershel to a cell.

"Get him on the bed." Rick says.

They carefully but quickly lift him on the bed. I looked over at Beth and Maggie who were on the verge of tears.

Jen gets to him.

"What happened? Hand me my backpack!" Jen says.

Carol quickly grabs Jen's backpack and tosses it to her.

She leans down next to her.

"He got bit." Rick replies.

"Oh my god." Beth chokes out.

She goes into Angel's arms.

The group was crammed inside one cell; where Hershel was at, trying to get a view of what was going to happen.

Faint crying ripped through the air.

"Oh, my God, he's gonna turn." Beth whines.

"Did you cut it off?" Jen asks Rick.

"Yeah." He replies quickly.

"Maybe you got it in time." Jen replies while her and Carol work on the wound.

From where I standing outside the cell I could see Angel consoling Beth.

"Oh I need bandages." Carol says.

"You're gonna need a lot more than bandages." Jen says while she's digging for something in her backpack.

"Carl, go get the towels from the back, right next to my bed." Lori says to Carl.

And with that he's off.

"Is he gonna die?" Beth asks nervously.

"No no no sweetie he's gonna be alright." Lori says as she hugs Beth and Angel.

"Do we need to stabilize him?" Rick asks.

"I need to keep his leg elevated." Jen replies.

"Get some pillows!" Carol yells.

People move quickly. Gathering what they can that might help.

"He's already bled through the sheets." Maggie comments.

He voice sounded weak and fragile. If she wanted to cry she could, we understand.

"We can burn the wound to clot the blood. I can start a fire." Glenn adds nervously.

"No, please don't do this!" Beth replies.

"The shock can kill him." Carol says.

Everybody was sweating and breathing heavily.

There was a good chance that he might not wake up, and it worried me and the rest of us.

I walk outside the cell block.

I needed to clear my head.

To my surprise, Daryl is loading his cross bow on a table.

"What are you doing?" I ask him.

He gestures to an opening a little further from where we were standing.

I begin to hear light footsteps and talking.

I take out my gun and aim.

After a few seconds of silence, I see a man come through the door.

He was a prisoner. His upper part of his uniform is folded below his waist so a muscle shirt shows.

"That's far enough." Daryl says as four more prisoners walk through the entrance.

"Who the fuck are they?" I ask.

No one answers.

They continue to walk slowly, spreading out a foot away from the entrance.

There's a mere silence as tension fills the room.

"Cell block C, cell 4 that's mine gringo," A Latino prisoner says.

I chuckle.

"Let me in."

"Today's your lucky day fellas, you've been pardoned by the state of Georgia, you're free to go." Daryl replies still aiming his crossbow.

"What you got going on in there?" The prisoner asks.

"Ain't none of your concern." Daryl replies.

"Don't be telling me what's my concern." The prisoner retorts back taking out a gun and aiming towards us.

I step closer to them still aiming.

Daryl steps closer to them after me.

"Chill dude. Dude's leg is messed up. Besides, we're free are we still in here?" Another prisoner adds.

"The man's got a point." Daryl comments.

Silence again.

"I gotta check on my old lady." A taller prisoner says.

'She's dead' I say in my mind.

"A group of civilians breaking in to a prison you got no business being in, got me thinking there ain't no place for us to go." The main prisoner says.

Ehh. He was partially right.

"Why don't you go find out." Daryl retorts.

"Maybe we'll just be going now." An older prisoner comments.

The main prisoner looks back at him with disbelief.

"We ain't leaving." The main prisoner says.

"We'll you ain't coming either." T-Dog says entering through the side of the room with a gun pointed at the prisoners.

"Hey, this is my house, my rules.  
I go where I damn well please." The main prisoner replies.

I rolled my eyes.

This bitch.

"Shut the fuck up." I say in annoyance.

"Hey you don't tell me to shut the fuck up!" The prisoner says as he gets closer to me and aims his gun towards me.

"Yo nobody threatens Ray." T-Dog says getting in front of me.

Ray? I have a nickname now.

"We should leave now," The older prisoner says calmly.

"Let's go." He finishes.

"We're not leaving." The main prisoner say sternly.

Oh my god. These bitches are getting on my nerves.

"There ain't nothing for you here why don't you go back to your own sandbox." Daryl says.

"Hey hey hey hey!" Rick says, joining in.

Finally. This issue was going to go a lot faster with Rick.

"Everyone relax there's no need for this." He says.

There was a cool silence.

"How many of you are in there?" The prisoner asks him.

"To many for you to handle." Rick replies.

The tension begins to build in the room.

"You guys rob a bank or something?" The prisoner asks.

I laugh.

"Why don't you take him to a hospital." He continues.

I exchange a look with Rick.

Holy mother fucking shit.

These guys have been locked up for a while.

For a few moments, nobody says anything.

"How long have you been locked in that cafeteria?" Rick says taking a few steps forwards.

"10 months."

Well.

"Riot broke out, never seen anything like it," the taller prisoner says.

"Attica on speed man." The older prisoner says.

"Ever heard about dudes going cannibal, dying, coming back to life? Crazy." They add.

They had a wonderful surprise coming their way.

"One guard looked out for us, locked us up in the cafeteria. Told us sit tight, threw me this piece, said he'd be right back." The main prisoner says still aiming.

"Yeah, and that was 292 days ago."

"94 according to my calcu-"

"Shut up!"

Alright then. If that's the type of prisoners they are. They were obviously in here for something.

"We were thinking that the army or the national guard should be showing up any day now." They continue.

Holy shit.

"There is no army." Rick says calmly.

"What do you mean?" The prisoner asks.

"It means there's no army. No navy no police, no hospital, no government. Nothing." I add.

I lowered my gun.

My wound began to ache.

"It's all gone." I finish.

Silence.

"For real?" Asks the older prisoner.

"Serious." Rick replies.

A heavy feeling falls on us. We're basically telling them that everyone they knew is dead.

"What about our moms?" Another prisoner asks.

"Our kids." Another adds.

"And my old lady." The taller one says.

Silence.

"Yo you got a cellphone or something we could use to call our families?" They ask.

I scoffed.

"You just don't get it do you?" Daryl says.

"No phones, no computers. As far as we can see at least half the population has been wiped out," Rick begins.

"Probably more."

Silence.

They look confused. Scared.

Like if we're pulling a prank on them.

Sadly we're not. This is life. The new life.

We gave them a moment to try to take it all in.

"Ain't no way." The main prisoner says.

I exhaled in annoyance.

"See for yourself." Rick says gesturing towards outside.

We walk slowly towards an exit to one of the prison yards. We kept our guns alert and we didn't take our eyes off them once.

As Rick opened the exit door, the prisoners stepped outside one by one.

They shielded their eyes as the blazing sun hit.

There's dead bodies everywhere. There's blood stains all over the floor and walls and body parts scattered on the floor.

"Damn the sun feels good." A prisoners comments as he exhales in delight.

Melissa is sitting on the floor next to a tore open body.

What was she doing here?

She stands up and motions for me to go to her.

I glance over at Rick.

I walker over to her quietly.

"Hey." I said.

"Look I'm so sorry about-" she says.

"Cut the crap." I reply.

She stays quiet.

"I know you're not. You don't have to fake an apology." I say in annoyance.

She sighs.

From behind me the others were discussing.

"Angel talked to Rick for me, she said that he said that I could bunk with you guys with the exception that I was your sister, but that I had to remain calm and behave." She said flatly.

Rick agreed to let this bitch live with us?

Fuck. I'll have to talk to him later.

"Okay then." I said.

We shook hands.

She had the darkest smile on her face. Her eyes told a different story. I knew she was going to attempt to kill me again the second we let our guard down. I know my sister, she's a sly conniving bitch.

I returned a fake smile.

"I'll be over there. I'll join you guys later." She said as she turned around and walked towards an exit on the gates.

I returned back to the group.

"...it's gonna happen to all of us." Daryl says.

I'm guessing they told them about all of us being infected.

They stayed quiet.

They walked around a few bodies before speaking up.

"Ain't no way this Robin Hood and teenage runaway responsible for killing all these freaks." The main prisoner

Daryl and I exchange a look in satisfaction.

"Must be 50 bodies out here." Another prisoner adds taking a look into the rest of the yard beyond the gates.

We don't say anything for a moment.

"Where'd you come from?" The main prisoner asks Rick.

"Atlanta." Rick replies

He starts walking closer to him.

"Where you headed?" The prisoner asks him.

"For now no nowhere." Rick says.

Silence

"I guess you can take that area down there near the water. Should be comfortable." The prisoner says gesturing towards a field.

"We're using that field for crops." Rick replies.

He stiffened.

"We'll help you move your gear out." The prisoner says back.

"That won't be necessary," Rick starts.

"We took out these walkers, this prison is ours." He replies in a serious tone.

Ugh not again.

"Slow down cowboy," the prisoner says.

"You snatched the locks of our doors."

They did?

"We'll give you new locks, if that's how you want it." Rick replies.

"This is our prison. We were here first."

I rolled my eyes.

We had been over the 'I was here first so it's mine' issue already.

"Locked in a broom closet?" Rick says before pausing.

He smiles in amusement and just for a second I think of him as more than a friend.

"We took it, set you free. It's ours. We spilled blood." He says getting closer to him.

"We're moving back into our cell block." He replies.

"You'll have to get your own." I say.

He looks at me with anger.

"It is mine.I've still got personal artifacts in there That's about as mine as it gets." The prisoner says taking out his gun and pointing a us.

We take out our weapons and aim back as we get closer in.

The older prisoner steps in between us.

"Whoa whoa whoa," He says.

"Maybe let's try to work this out so that everybody wins."

He looks back and forth at us.

"I don't see that happening." The main prisoner says, still aiming at Rick.

"Neither do I." Rick adds.

"Ain't going back into the cafeteria for one more minute." The prisoner says.

"There are other cell blocks." The older prisoner says looking towards the other prisoners.

"You could leave." Daryl says with his cross bow in his hands.

"Try your look out on the road." Daryl continues.

Silence.

"If these four pussies can do all this, the least we can do is take out another cell block." The main prisoner says.

He was really starting to piss me off.

"With what?" The taller prisoner asks.

The prisoner looks back and forth at us.

"Atlanta here will spot us some real weapons, won't you boss?" He asks Rick.

"How stocked is that cafeteria? It must have plenty of food. Five guys lasting almost a year?" Rick asks.

Yes a food trade.

"It sure as hell don't look like anybody's been starving." Daryl adds.

The prisoner looks back at his friends.

"There's only a little left." He replies.

"We'll take half," Rick says.

"In exchange, we'll help clear out a cell block." He continues.

"Didn't you hear him? There's only a little left." Says a shorter prisoner who hadn't spoken since I met them.

"Bet you got more food than you got choices." Rick says.

"You pay, we'll play."

The prisoners don't say anything.

"We'll clear out a block for you, then you keep to it." Rick suggests.

Tension grows as silence falls.

"Alright." The prisoner agrees.

"But let's be clear, If we see you out here anywhere near our people," Rick says getting in his face.

"If I so much as even catch a whiff of your scent, I will kill you." Rick finishes.

* * *

We headed back to the cafeteria to get our food.

"Pantry's beck here." Says the main prisoner disappearing into a pantry in the back.

"You never tried to break out of here?" T-Dog says as his eyes travel the room.

"Yeah, we tried to take the doors off.  
But if you make one peep in here, then those freaks'll be lined up outside the door growling, trying to get in." A tall prisoner replies.

I took a look around the room. The walls were dirty.

There was dried piss on the floor.

I cringed.

"Windows got bars on there that he-man couldn't get through." One of the prisoners mentions.

"Bigger than a 5x8." The older one adds.

"My left leg can barely fit on one of those bunks."

"Yeah, they don't call him Big Tiny for nothing."

"You done jerking each other off? Sick of waiting back here." The main prisoner says while leaning on the door henge to the pantry.

Rick keeps a solid serious look on his face.

We walk to the back where the food was at.

We quickly scan through the bags and cans stacked on each other.

"This what you call a little bit of food?" Daryl asks.

"Goes fast."

"Mm-hmm."

The prisoners turned to us.

"You can have a bag of corn, some tuna fish." The main one lists.

"We said half." Rick states.

"That's the deal." He continues.

Silence.

Rick turns around and heads for a door.

"What's in there?" He asks, fiddling with the door knob.

"Don't open that." They warned.

Rick opens the closer door and gags as he inhales the smell.

It was crap.

The prisoners laugh.

"He wanted to know." They say in amusement.

Rick slams door in annoyance and faces us.

I can't help but crack a smile.

* * *

"Food's here." T-Dog announces as we lift bags and cans of food into our cell block.

"What you got?" Carl asks as he opens the gates for us.

"Canned beef, canned corn, canned cans. There's a lot more where this came from." Rick says as he sets down a bag of flour.

"Any change?" He asks Lori.

"Bleeding is under control and no fever, Jennifer is a miracle worker." She replies.

Jen laughs.

"I'm a nurse, not a miracle worker." She says with a smile.

Lori smiles back

"But his breath is labored and his pulse is way down and he hasn't opened his eyes yet." She says as her smile fades.

Rick began thinking for a few moments before spinning.

"Take my cuffs, put them on him." Rick says to Glenn.

"I'm not taking any chances."

Glenn looks at him in disbelief and confusion before he gently takes the cuffs.

* * *

"Why do I need this," the main prisoner says picking up an axe.

"When I got this." He continues lifting his gun.

I rolled my eyes.

"You don't fire guns, not unless your back's up against a wall. Noise attracts them." Daryl replies.

"It really riles them up." He adds.

The other prisoners pick up their weapons and inspect and maneuver them.

"We'll go in two by two." Rick says.

"Daryl will run point with T. I'll bring up the rear with you. Rachel you'll join the rest." Rick says facing me.

I nod.

"Stay tight, hold formation no matter how close the walkers get anyone breaks ranks, we could all go down." He continues.

"Anyone runs off, they could get mistaken for a walker, end up with an axe to the head." He finishes.

"And that's where you aim." Daryl adds.

"These things only go down with a head shot."

The prisoner rolls his eyes.

"Ain't gotta tell us how to take out a man." He replies.

That's probably why he was put in here to begin with.

"They're not men." I say.

"They're something else." I add.

They fall silent.

"Just remember to go for the brain." Rick repeats.

* * *

We were all walking to a different cell block in a group now.

The halls were dark and murky.

"Man, it's too damn dark in here." A prisoner comments.

"Gotta hold it up high out in front of you. You're gonna hear them before you see them." Daryl says, exampling with his axe.

We walk around for a few seconds when the older prisoner yells,

"It's coming!"

"Shhh!"

We made a turn.

Walkers emerged from the entrance of another hallway.

Rick gestures for them to go test them out.

They run over to them.

The prisoners hold the walkers up by their arms.

They make grunting noises as they stab everywhere but the brain.

The lungs, the heart, the stomach.

It was an enormous fail.

Rick, T-Dog, Daryl and I all exchange looks as the prisoners continue to stab the hearts.

I face-palmed.

They deserved it.

* * *

"It's gotta be the brain. Not the stomach, not the heart." Daryl says as he shoots a walker with his crossbow.

"The brain." He says gesturing at his head.

"I hear you." One of the prisoners says.

A walker comes up from the side and a prisoner goes up and axes it directly in the head.

"Like that?" He asks.

"Uh-huh."

Another walker. Then another walker pop up from the side.

"Stay in tight formation. No more prison riot crap." Rick says as he axes a walker.

More began coming at once.

I took my knife and jabbed it into a walkers head.

The prisoners sure had learned more about how to really kill a walker.

They all went for the head.

As soon as the walkers are all dead we hear a gunshot not to far away from us.

God no.

We jog over to where it came from and see the main prisoner with a gun and blood on his hands.

Rick and Daryl were there.

"I'm telling you, I don't feel anything.  
It's just a scratch." A prisoner says.

I look over to him.

He had a big scratch on his back.

He wasn't going to make it.

"I'm sorry, man."

"I can keep fighting!"

"You cut that old guy's leg off to save his life." The shorter prisoner interjects.

"Look at where the bite is." Rick says pointing to his back.

"Guys, I'm fine! Just- I'm fine." The bit prisoner continues.

"Look at me- I'm not changing into one of those things."

I sighed. These guys just didn't get it.

"Look, man, there has to be something we can do." Another prisoner comments.

"We could just lock him up."

"Quarantine him."

"We gotta do something."

"Why you just standing there? - We gotta save him." The shorter prisoner says turning to Rick.

"There's nothing we can do." Rick replies.

The shorter prisoner stares at him in shock.

"You son of a bitch." He says.

There was an utter silence.

"I'm all ri-" the bit prisoner begins.

The main prisoner takes his axe and swings it at his head.

We step back as his body falls forward.

The prisoner is just repeatedly bashing his skull with the axe.

Blood splatters. Some of it stains my jeans.

We all just stand there and watch as the main prisoner murders his cell mate in front of us.

* * *

After that debacle, we turn another corner.

The prisoners walk in front of us. They know this prison like the back of their hand.

"You see the look on his face?" Daryl asks Rick and I as the main prisoner walks past in front of us.

"He makes one move, just give me a signal." Daryl says after.

Rick nods.

We turn a hallway and enter a room.

A sign read 'Cell Block D'.

We've made it.

We circled around a door opening. The main prisoner stood in front and we wall starred at him waiting to open the door.

"I ain't opening that." He says.

"Yes, you are." T-Dog says.

"If you want this cell block, you're gonna open that door. Just the one, not both of them. Because we need to control this." Rick instructs.

The prisoner rolls his eyes and he positions his hands on the doors.

"You bitches ready?" He asks.

Nobody responds.

He struggles at first.

"I got this." He continues.

We readied our weapons as the banging and growling of walkers began.

He opens both the doors as walkers pour out.

"I said one door!" Rick yells as he axes a walker.

"Shit happens!" The prisoner yells back.

Rick gives him back a look of anger.

I lunge towards a walker and force my knife into its head.

I did the same to three more walkers as arrows are being shot and grunts are being made.

Out of the corner of my eye I see sudden movement and I spin around.

I see Rick on the floor with a walker on top of him.

"T, mind his gap!" Daryl yells as he goes to Rick's aid.

I look over at the main prisoner. He did it. He has a faint smile on his face.

I grab a walker from its collar shirt and throw it towards him.

He looks at me with anger as his cell mate stabs it's head.

I smirk back at him.

By this time all the walkers are dead and they stop coming through the doors.

The prisoner turns to Rick.

Everybody is quiet and the tension rises.

"It was coming at me, bro." He says.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it I get it," Rick replies.

"Shit happens."

Silence.

I exchange a quick look with Daryl.

Rick picks up his axe and smashes it through the prisoners head.

A little weight is lifted of my shoulders.

"No!"

His body falls to the floor, blood spilling out of the wound.

"Ah!" The shorter prisoner yells.

"Easy, now." Daryl says.

The shorter prisoner runs inside the cell block.

"I got him." Rick says before running of after him.

We're left with the prisoners.

I took a deep breath.

"Man, get down on your knees." Daryl says to prisoners.

The remaining 2 prisoners land on the floor with their knees.

"We don't have no affiliation to what just happened. Tell him, Oscar." The older prisoners says in a whine.

Oscar the other prisoner stares at him with a straight face.

"Stop talking, man." He replies.

We keep our weapons pointed at them.

Rick comes back.

He looks sick.

He takes out his gun and points at the older prisoners head first.

"We didn't have nothing to do with that." He pleads.

"You didn't know? You knew." Rick yells.

"Let's end this show now!"

"Sir, please, please, listen to me! It was them that was bad. It wasn't us!" The older prisoner continues to beg.

"Oh, that's convenient." Rick retorts back.

"You saw what he did to Tiny.  
He was my friend. Please, we ain't like that. I like my pharmaceuticals, but I'm no killer. Oscar here, he's a B and E, and he ain't very good at it neither. We ain't the violent kind, they were! Please, I swear to God! I wanna live!" The older prisoner continues to plead.

He sounded a lot like...Randall.

Rick goes over to Oscar.

"What about you?" He asks with his gun pointing at him.

"I ain't never pleaded for my life.  
And I ain't about to start now.  
So you do what you gotta do." He replies.

* * *

We threw the two renaming prisoners in cell block D.

The older prisoner takes a look around at all the dead bodies on the floor.

They had bullet marks on the back of their heads.

"Oh, man. I knew these guys. They were good men." The older one comments.

"They were put in here for a reason." I say.

They stayed quiet. They kept walking a little further into the cell block.

"Let's go." Rick says.

"So you're just gonna leave us in here? Man, this is sick." The other prisoner says.

"We're locking down this cell block.  
From now on, this part of the prison is yours. Take it or leave it. That was the deal." Rick replies.

I look back at Rick and the prisoners.

"You think this is sick?" Daryl asks taking a step closer.

"You don't wanna know what's outside." He finishes.

"Consider yourselves the lucky ones." Rick says before turning around and leaving.

He didn't looks so good.

I followed after him.

"Sorry about your friends man." Daryl says behind me.

I caught up with Rick.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

He stiffened.

"Nothing. Let's just head back." He replies.

* * *

We went back to our cell block.

As soon as we returned Rick went straight to Lori.

I walked into Hershel's room where Angel and Jen were at.

"What happened?" Angel asked.

I swallowed.

"Nothing. We just met some guys. They're dead now. Don't worry." I reply.

I couldn't let her know that we were living next door to a couple of prisoners.

"Okay." She says as she sits down next to me.

Lori comes in and puts her hand over Hershel's forehead.

"Still no fever." She says.

Then the whole group walked in the cell.

We all just stare at Hershel.

He was such a good man and father. He didn't deserve to die like this. This wasn't part of the plan. My eyes begin to water.

Just then at that moment Hershel's eyes flutter open.

My heart bears faster.

He made it.

"Daddy?" Maggie asks. She had a small smile on her face.

"Daddy." Beth says.

She removes herself from Jen's arms and makes her way next to Maggie.

"Daddy." She continues.

Hershel makes out a faint smile.

Nobody says a word. The moment was so emotional. We let Maggie and Beth have their moment with their dad. I heard a few sighs of relief.

Hershel was alive, and that's all that mattered.


	17. Chapter 17

**Okay in the next chapter there will be a few major character deaths wah :/ Imma work on the next chapter right now :)**

* * *

I was in my cell preparing myself for the day.

Carl and I would be exploring the prison on our own.

The rest of the group was going to rest for the day.

Jen had removed my stitches and I had completely recovered. I was ready to take on anything.

I honestly think I was a little more excited than he was.

I smiled to myself.

Lori walked in my cell.

"Rachel," she said.

I turned and faced her.

"Please don't let Carl out of your sight. I know I've told you a million times but please." She said.

I nodded.

"I won't. I promise." I said.

She nodded back.

'Thank you' she mouthed as she adjusted her hand under her pregnant stomach before leaving.

I swung my backpack over my shoulder.

Ready.

I walked outside of my cell.

Carl was talking to Rick in front of the gates.

They were talking in hushed voices.

The rest of the group was either outside or resting on their beds.

Rick gave him a pat on the arm.

I walked over to them. Carl was beaming with excitement.

"Have fun." Rick said.

I nodded at him. I don't see anything fun about a prison full of walkers but I agreed anyways.

"I'll bring him back, don't worry." I said to him.

"Alright. Carl I want you to stay close to Rachel, if anything happens you run back to our cell block, do not hesitate." Rick says.

We both nodded.

Rick slid open the gates and have us one last nod before closing the gates and letting us go.

I took one look at Carl.

He smiled.

We walked further into an opening.

As we entered it, cricket chirping stopped. The hallway was dark and rusty. The walls were covered in blood and the floors were crowded with bodies.

The only light visible was Carl's flashlight.

"Watch where you step." I said.

"Mmhh." He replied.

We walked a little more before making a turn.

The hallway was empty.

I sighed in relief.

Just then I heard the growling of a walker.

Carl doesn't seem to hear it.

"Shh." I say.

He stops walking a puts his back against the wall.

"Stay here." I whispered to him.

He nodded.

I walked to where I heard the noise from. It began to grow louder. As if there was more than one.

I took out my gun and aimed quickly as I turned the corner from where the noise was coming from.

My heart sank. I felt sick.

There was nothing there.

But I heard it.

Right?

My back hit the wall.

Carl runs over to me.

He looks into the empty hallway.

"There's nothing here. Let's go." He whispers.

I blinked my eyes for a moment. I tried to process what had just happened. Was I hearing things? Were the noises coming from somewhere else?

"Yeah. Uhh let's go." I said.

We walked side by side again.

Did Carl hear the noises too?

"Did you hear the growling?" I asked nervously.

He shook his head.

I swallowed.

"Are you okay?" He asks.

I don't answer for a moment.

I close my eyes and exhale.

"I'm fine just...I need some more sleep that's all." I replied.

He starred at me with a confused look on his face for a few seconds.

We made another turn and ran into a dead end.

There was a door at the end of the hallway.

We stopped walking.

"Are we gonna go in there?" Carl asks in a whisper.

"Do you want to?" I asked.

"Yeah." He replied.

It seemed a little dangerous. There could be anything behind that door. A group of walkers, supplies, more prisoners.

It could be an exit to another part of the prison.

We walked closer and closer to the door.

When we were a foot away from it, we stopped again.

"I'll open it." I said.

I grabbed the door knob and slowly twisted it.

I slowly swung open the door.

It was another passageway.

We sighed in relief.

Carl lightly laughed.

We entered the hallway and proceeded our expedition.

This hallway was empty. The walls were partly clean, but the floors were empty.

Weird I thought.

On the side there was a door that read 'Supply Closet'.

"Wait Carl." I whispered.

I opened the door and a walker poured out.

"Ahh!"

Carl is the first to act as he guns it down. The small pillow around the edge makes the gunshot unaudioable.

We walk back from the walker.

He was breathing heavily.

"It's okay, it's okay." I reassured.

His breaths began to slow down.

I peep inside the closet.

There's bandages, some pills, a dried pizza crust and a gun with ammo.

Score.

I take all the items and stuff them into my backpack.

"Hey Rachel look." Carl says behind me.

I spin around and see a large chain dangling around his neck.

"Where did you get that?" I ask with a light laugh.

"It was on the walker." He replies.

"You don't know where it's been." I say.

He shrugs.

He hands me a pin.

"This was on him too." He says.

The pin reads a big 'Q'.

"Thanks." I say as I pin it on my shirt.

He nods.

I step over the walker and proceed. Carl follows. He still has the chain around his neck.

I smile.

We turn a corner and something at the end of the hallway catches my eyes.

A bag of chips?

"Wait wait wait." I say to him.

He pauses next to me.

"Is that chips?" I ask.

I hadn't seen chips in a long time. Only on occasion when I went on runs with Glenn and Maggie. We'd enter a grocery store and there'd be empty bags of chips on the floor.

Carl proceeds walking closer to the chips at the end of the hallway.

"Rachel." I heard in a hushed whisper.

I stop.

"Did you call my name?" I asked Carl.

He stopped walking and turned to me.

"No, why?" He asks.

I shook my head.

"No reason." I replied quickly.

He looked at me with a serious face.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

I nodded.

"I'm fine." I lied.

I adjusted my backpack strap and continued walking.

He followed after me.

"If you wanna go back-" he said.

"No it's fine. You waited to long for this." I said.

I swallowed.

We continued walking.

When we were three feet away from the bag of chips we stopped.

There was a quick silence.

"Can I get them?" He asked.

I starred at the chips. 'Lays' they read.

'Original'.

"Yeah." I replied.

"No Rachel, they're hiding." A voice whispered.

I closer my eyes.

I heard Carl slowly walking towards the chips.

This couldn't be happening.

I had always joked around about being crazy but this-

"Ahh!"

My eyes snapped open as Carl ran next to me.

I took out my gun as a group of about 10 walkers poured out of the corner.

We took action and gunned them down.

They growled and they tried to grab any part of my body.

I couldn't see Carl but I heard him grunting.

They had me pinned against the wall.

I shot one then another.

They all fell in front of me.

When there was no more walkers in view I put my gun down.

I was breathing heavily.

Carl was not in sight.

No no no no no no no.

Where's Carl? No I'm not Lori. Where is he?

"Carl!" I called out.

Fuck I lost him.

I spun around quickly. I bumped into him.

"Holy shit." I said.

"I was right here." He said.

I was still breathing heavily and sweating.

He brought his hand up.

He had the bag of chips in his hands.

I smiled.

"You think the group will like them?" He asked.

We turned a corner.

"I don't know. Maybe." I said.

He opened the bag.

He handed me the bag after he takes a chip.

I took one.

I put it in my mouth. It tasted crunchy and salty. God I hadn't tasted chips in so long. It tasted like heaven.

"Rachel!" Carl yelled as he out hi hand in front of me.

I looked forward and realized that we stepped into a room full of prisoner walkers.

We immediately turned around and ran.

I held the bag of chips in my hand tightly.

We ran through hallways an corners.

The growling was chasing us.

I took a look back and saw a here coming after us.

Squeezing their way through the narrow hallways.

We ran past the door and supply closet.

I looked next to me and saw Carl running as fast as his legs could take him.

As we started running through a familiar hallway I pushed through the door at the end.

I held it open for Carl.

He ran between the door and headed for the gates.

I slammed the door and locked it shut.

"Open the gate!" Carl yelled.

"What happened?!" Lori yelled as Beth opened the gate doors.

The group huddled around us as we entered our cell block.

"The chips." Carl whispered.

I held them crushed in my hands.

I handed him the bags.

"What happened?" Lori asked again.

"We outran those bitches." I said.

Carl held out his fist.

I brought up my fist and bumped his.

I had never felt those relieved.


	18. Chapter 18

I** think I cried while writing this chapter ('-') ok anyways after season 4 ends we have a 7 month wait :( but in that time I'll catch up with all the episodes :)**

* * *

It had been about a week since Carl and I explored the prison.

We ended up sharing the bag of chips with the entire group.

They were delicious.

On the other hand Lori was due any day now. Rick had asked Jen to alway be by her side. Hershel was still resting. He was doing better, luckily.

Maybe this place could be a new home.

We were outside moving the cars.

Rick, Maggie, Glenn, Daryl, Carol, Melissa, T-Dog and I.

It was a calm sunny morning.

"Okay, let's get the other car in." Rick says while Carol backs up into an empty part of the yard.

"We'll park 'em in the west entry of the yard." He continues.

"Good, our vehicles camped out there look like a giant "vacancy" sign." Daryl says from behind us.

"After that, we need to load up these corpses so we can burn 'em." Rick says.

I sighed.

"Gonna be a long day." Melissa comments stretching her arms out.

Carol gets out of the car she backed up and joins us.

"Where's Glenn and Maggie? We could use some help." She says covering her eyes with her hand.

"Up in the guard tower." Daryl replies.

"Guard tower? They were just up there last night." Rick says.

He takes a few steps forward.

"Glenn! Maggie!" Daryl yells.

We wait a moment before a door opens revealing a shirtless Glenn buckling his pants.

"Hey, what's up, guys?" Glenn yells back.

Oh my god.

Rick laughs.

"You coming?" Daryl asks.

"What?" Glenn replies.

We all break into laughter.

Even they had time for sex.

"You comin'?" Daryl asks again.

Glenn takes a quick look back at Maggie.

"Come on, we could use a hand!" Daryl adds.

"Yeah, we'll be right down!" Glenn yells back.

He goes back into the guard tower and shuts the door.

We all turn around and start walking the the other car.

"Hey, Rick." T-Dog says.

We all turn around and face where he's looking at.

From a fence in the distance we see the two prisoners walking up.

Rick sighs in frustration as he starts walking towards them.

"Come with me." He says to Daryl and I.

We walked our way to the prisoners side of the yard.

"That's close enough." Rick says.

The prisoners stop walking.

"We had an agreement." Rick states.

Axel speaks up.

"Please, mister, We know that."

"We made a deal."

Glenn and Maggie come out of the guard tower behind them.

"But you've gotta understand we can't live in that place another  
minute. You follow me? All the bodies, people we knew. Blood, brains everywhere. There's ghosts." Axel continues.

I chuckled at the last one.

"Why don't you move the bodies out?" Daryl asks with his crossbow out.

"You should be burning them." T-Dog adds.

"We tried. We did." Axel replies.

There was a quick silence.

"The fence is down on the far side of the prison. Every time we drag a body out, those things just line up.  
So we dump in a body and just run back inside." Oscar the other prisoner adds.

We don't respond.

"Look, we had nothing to do with Thomas and Andrew," Axel begins.

"Nothing. You trying to prove a point? You proved it, bro. We'll do whatever it takes to be part of your group. Just, please, please. Don't make us live in that place." He says.

I roll my eyes.

"Our deal is not negotiable. You either live in your cell block, or you leave." Rick replies.

Oscar sighs.

"I told you this was a waste of time." He says.

He glances at axel before turning back to Rick.

"They ain't no different than the l pricks who shot up our boys.  
You know how many friends' corpses we had to drag out this week? Just threw 'em out." Oscar adds.

"Humph. These were good guys.  
Good guys who had our backs against the really bad dudes in the joint, like Thomas and Andrew." Oscar says.

We don't say anything.

"We've all made mistakes to get in here, chief. And I'm not gonna pretend to be a saint, but believe me we've paid our due- enough that we would rather hit that road than to go back into that shithole." Oscar finishes.

Rick and T-Dog exchange a quick glance.

Rick looks back at Daryl and I.

We shake our heads lightly.

Rick looks back at the prisoners.

Rick grabs a lock and hands it to Daryl.

"Lock them up." He says. He walks off behind a car.

"C'mon dude." Axel says.

Him and Oscar back up.

The others join Rick.

I follow after them.

"Are you serious? You want them living in a cell next to you?" Rick asks T-Dog.

"They'll just be waiting for a chance to grab our weapons. You want to go back to sleeping with one eye open?" Rick adds.

"I never stopped." T-Dog replies.

Daryl comes up from behind T-Dog and joins us.

"Bring them into the fold. If we send them off packing, we might as well execute them ourselves." T-Dog says.

"I don't know. Axel seems a little unstable." Glenn comments.

Axel did look a little too desperate.

"After all we've been through? We fought so hard for all this, what if they decide to take it?" Carol says.

I've known this group for about 11 months now. A lot of shit has gone down. We've fought to get to where we are now.

"It's just been us for so long. They're strangers. I don't- It feels weird all of a sudden to have these other people around." Maggie says shaking her head.

"You brought us." T-Dog says.

"Yeah, but you turned up with a shot boy in your arms. Didn't give us a choice." Maggie replies.

Memories of when I first met the group and Carl being shot popped into my head.

"They can't even kill walkers." I added.

"They're convicts, bottom line." Carol says after me.

If we let these guys join, they'd be as useless as Lori.

We could use extra hands for laundry.

"Those two might actually have less blood on their hands than we do." T-Dog says.

Ehh. I hadn't killed many people. Only Tony from the bar, Randall and a cashier who attempted to steal my gun.

"I get guys like this," Daryl comments.

"Hell, I grew up with them. They're degenerates, but they ain't psychos. I could have been with them just as easy as I am out here with you, guys." He says.

I shrugged.

"So are you with me?" T-Dog asks.

"Hell no." Daryl states.

"Let 'em take their chances out on the road - just like we did." He adds.

T-Dog slumps his shoulders. He sighed on defeat.

Rick takes a step towards T-Dog.

"When I was a rookie, I arrested this kid. Wanted for stabbing his girlfriend," Rick says.

"The kid blubbered like a baby during the interrogation, during the trial- suckered the jury. He was acquitted due to insufficient evidence, and in 2 weeks later shot another girl." Rick finishes.

T-Dog swallows. Tension grew between the two of them.

"We've been through too much.  
Our deal with them stands." Rick says before walking off.

* * *

Melissa's P.O.V.

I was sitting on the stairs sharpening my knife.

Lori and Hershel were having another conversation about the baby.

How the hell does Carl believe that Lori was going to survive? He is so naïve. I tried to explain to him many times that Lori is going to die but he just doesn't want to hear it.

Angel walked up the stairs and sat down across from me.

No matter how shitty my mood was, somehow she could always make it better.

Maybe it was because she was always smiling. Or because her always-happy-attitude went wherever she went.

"Hi." She said.

"Hello." I replied.

She shifted in her spot.

"Are you excited?" She asked with a small smile on her face.

"For?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"Lori's baby." She said.

I sighed.

"I know that when her baby is born I'll be the best babysitter and that we'll all grow old here in the prison and that you and Rachel will forgive each other and love each other again." She said.

I cringed at the thought of Rachel. I hoped that she had died when I ditched her. That was the goal that I had with Lance. But instead she joined a group and survived. She was tougher than I thought.

I grabbed Angel's hand.

"Maybe one day we can live as a happy family again." I said.

She smiled.

"That's the way it should be." She said.

She let go of my hand and pulled me in for a hug.

She hugged me for a few seconds before pulling apart.

She smiled at me before hopping off the metal stairs.

I went back to sharpening my knife.

Angel was a sweet girl but the truth was that I was never ever going to love Rachel again. There was to much hatred between us. I'm not sure if I wanna try to kill her again. I just need to wait a little longer. When they least expect it.

I smiled to myself.

I heard footsteps coming up the stairs.

It was Jen. She took a seat in front of me.

"We sure lucked out." She said.

I nodded.

"We used to talk about this all the time. About finding a group, rebuilding civilization ." She says with a light laugh.

"This place is safe." She continued.

Safe? That's a word I don't use much now a days.

"Melissa, Jen?" Lori called from below.

We faced her.

"We're gonna be outside." She says holding her bump.

"Alright we'll meet you there." I replied with a fake smile.

They walked out with Hershel in crutches.

I turned my attention back to Jen.

"We are survivors." She said before walking off the stairs and following the others.

I caught up with them in the mini yard in front of our cell block.

I saw Rick, Daryl, Glenn, and Rachel on the other side.

There was a silence.

Rick and Lori starred at each other pensively in dove smiles.

I rolled my eyes.

I looked over at Angel who was smiling at Rachel.

I had to admit I was a little jealous of Rachel and Angel. Their bond has defiantly grown. Angel is supposed to love me more. Not that stupid skank.

"Walkers!" Carl yelled.

We all turned around.

Sure enough a group of walkers was headed for us.

"No!" Rick yelled from the other side.

We all pulled out our guns.

We began shooting them down.

Everybody moved quickly.

Jen, Hershel, and Beth all ran to a door.

Gunshots were being fired all over the place.

"Lori in here!" Maggie yelled as she pointed to the entrance of our cell block.

Carl shot one more walker before following after them.

Angel and I tagged along with them.

We ran inside the prison and headed for our block.

Walkers pour out and we immediately run in the other direction.

I hold Angel's hand tightly.

She all of a sudden squeezes as she screams in pain.

I turn back to look at her.

She was bit.

Maggie guns down the walker with one shot.

Angel is screaming and yelling.

She's bleeding. She has flesh hanging off of her back.

"No!" I yelled.

"I'm sorry!" Maggie yells back.

We enter another gated area and Maggie slams the door shut.

Angel is tagging on behind me.

She's crying and bleeding. No this isn't how the story was supposed to go.

We frantically scavenge every hallway turn for walkers. With Lori's panting and Angel's crying.

We enter a hallway.

Angel cries harder and I grasp her hand tighter.

"Where's Rachel?" Angel asks through tears.

"She's with Rick sweatheart don't worry." Maggie replies.

"You're gonna be fine okay sweetheart." Lori says through grunts and pants.

"Stop lying to me!" Angel yells. No one had ever seen her snap, not even me.

She rubbed her wound.

Angel continues crying. I let a few tears fall.

We come to a stop when Lori pauses next to a wall.

"Can you keep up?" Maggie asks worriedly.

"Something's not right." Lori says running her stomach.

"Are you bit?" Carl asks nervously.

"No, no, no. I think the baby's coming." Lori says. That made all of us stop cold.

My heart skips a beat. No not now. Why now?!

"Mom?"

We hear growling and a group of walkers heads in our direction.

"No, there's no time!" Maggie yells as we run in the opposite direction.

We follow Carl.

Angel is still crying and gasping.

She wasn't going to make it.

Snarling from the walkers and Lori's panting echoes through the air.

"In here!" Carl yells as he holds open a door for us.

We all hurry in.

Lori is breathing heavily and sweating intensively.

We explore the room and step down some stairs.

Lori panting and grunting and Angel is crying and bleeding.

This is to much.

"What are those alarms?" Lori asks.

There had been these loud and obnoxious alarms blaring for a while now.

"Don't worry about it." Maggie replies.

"What if it attracts them?" Carl asks.

Lori begins panting harder and harder.

"Let's lay you down." Maggie suggests.

"No- the baby's coming now." Lori says.

We're screwed.

"We have to get back to our cell block to have Hershel help." Carl says.

He takes a glance at Angel in sadness.

"We can't risk getting caught out there." Maggie comments.

I look over at Angel. She's turning pale and she's sweating heavily. She's gasping and crying. Carl looks over at her, tears forming in his eyes. I let a small tear roll down my cheek.

"You're gonna need to give birth to this baby here." Maggie says.

Lori exhales.

"Great." She says through pants.

Oh my god. What was I gonna tell Rachel? How would she react. I can't loose Angel. My heart began racing faster and faster.

Lori's panting began getting more abnormal.

"What is she doing? Can't she breathe?" Carl asks nervously.

"She's fine. Come here- let's get your pants off." Maggie says.

She goes over to Lori.

"Melissa," Angel calls.

Her voice was cracking.

"What's wrong?" I asked in tears.

Maggie sets Lori down on the floor.

"Im gonna die." She says.

Th tears roll down faster.

"No no honey don't say that." I said.

I caressed her cheek. Her warm tears dripped down on my hands.

"...Dad taught me, but trust me, it's my first time." Maggie says.

Carl lightly nods.

Lori yelps in pain.

"I gotta push." She says.

"I gotta push."

Lori stands up and holds onto a pipe.

"Ahhhh!" She yells as she pushes

She grunts and huffs as she gives another hard push.

"Whew whew!" She says.

"Somebody! - I'm okay, I'm okay."

"I'm okay."

She yells out in pain as she pushes again.

"You're doing great, Lori. Just keep doing it. Your body knows what to do. Let it do all the work." Maggie says.

Lori yells.

"You're doing great."

She grunts. She's sweating.

It was truly horrific to watch. Lori and Angel would be dead by the end of this. No no no no.

I fanned myself.

"Lori, don't push- stop. Something's wrong." Maggie says.

Maggie pulls out her hand covered with blood.

I gasp.

"Okay let's lay you down." Maggie says as she takes Lori's hand.

She gently lays her down on the floor.

Angel was crying behind me.

She gets on the floor next to Lori.

" Mom? Angel? Look at me, look at me. Keep your eyes open." Carl says leaning over to two girls.

This is to much for me to handle.

"We have to get you back to Dad." Maggie says.

"I'm not gonna make it." Lori says between pants.

"Lori, with all this blood, I don't even think you're fully dilated yet. No amount of pushing is gonna help." Maggie says.

Lori grunts.

"I know what it means, and I'm not losing my baby," she says.

Angel yelps.

"You've gotta cut me open." Lori says.

Angel looks at Lori. She let's more tears slip.

"Lori."

"No. I can't." Maggie says. Tears begin to roll down her cheeks.

"You don't have a choice." Lori says.

"No Lori please." Angel begs through gasps.

"I'll go for help." Carl says.

"No!" Lori says.

She grunted.

"Look, Carol is the one that practiced that. Dad only taught me the steps, Lori." Maggie says desperately.

"If I-"

"Please." Lori says grasping onto Maggie's arm.

"I have no anesthetic, no equipment." Maggie says.

"Carl has a knife." Lori said.

Our eyes dart to Carl. He was next to Angel. He was on the verge of tears.

"You won't survive." I say.

"My baby has to survive. Please." Lori replies.

I look at Maggie.

She swallows.

"My baby for all of us. Please, Maggie! Please!" Lori yells.

She cries even harder.

Maggie beings to look uneasy and sick.

"You see my old C-section scar?" Lori says lifting her shirt up a bit.

Angel was crying and panting. My sweet little Angel.

"I can't."

"You can,"

"You have to."

Maggie takes a deep breath.

Lori turns to Carl.

"Carl? Baby, I don't want you to be scared, okay?" She says.

He makes his way over to her. His tear stained face and red nose make it even more emotional.

"This is what I want. This is right. Now you- you take care of your daddy for me, all right? And your little brother or sister, you take care." Lori says.

"You don't have to do this." Carl says wearily.

Maggie let's out a sniffle.

I wipe my eyes.

"You're gonna be fine. You are gonna beat this world. I know you will.  
You are smart, and you are strong, and you are so brave, and I love you." Lori says hugging him.

"I love you too." He says.

By now the waterworks are running down all over our faces.

She pulls away from the hug.

"You gotta do what's right, baby. You promise me, you'll always do what's right. It's so easy to do the wrong thing in this world," Lori says.

Her last words of inspiration

"So don't- so if it feels wrong, don't do it, all right? If it feels easy don't do it. Don't let the world spoil you.  
You're so good. You're my sweet boy. The best thing I ever did. I love you." She says.

She pulls him in for another hug.

Carl and Lori begin sobbing.

"I love you. You're my sweet, sweet boy." Lori says, voice cracking.

"I love you." Carl replies in tears.

"Okay"

"Okay now. Okay." Lori says.

She pulls away from the hug.

I look at Angel and Maggie who are all crying.

Lori grabs Angel's hand and faces her.

"I'll see you on the other side." Lori says.

Angel shakily nods as a tear drops.

I began to sob.

Lori grunts out in pain.

"Maggie, when this is over, you're gonna have to-" Lori begins.

"Shh!" Maggie says.

"You have to do it. It can't be Rick." Lori says.

No no no. I have to shoot Angel.

"All right all right.  
It's all right.  
It's all right." Lori says looking up at the ceiling.

Carl passes the knife to Maggie. He hesitates at first before letting it go.

"Good night, love." Lori says.

"I'm sorry." Maggie says through tears.

Maggie takes the knife and presses it through Lori's stomach.

Lori screams out in pain.

Oh god I can't do this.

"What are you doing to her!?" Carl asks in tears.

Maggie doesn't respond.

She moves her knife across Lori's stomach as she yells out in pain.

"Carl, give me your hands. Carl, please. You should keep the site clean, okay? I cut too deep, I'm gonna cut the baby." Maggie warns.

Carl goes over next to Lori.

Angel is squeezing my hand. She's suffering. I let more tears drop. Goodbye Lori and Angel.

"Okay, come on I see it. I see the ears." Maggie says.

"I'm gonna pull it out." Maggie announces.

How would the group react? Two deaths that I know of so far.

"I can't tell if this is the arm or the leg. We'll, pull the baby out." Maggie says.

Lori stops moving. She silent now. She's laying on the floor motionless.

I swallow.

"Okay."

"We have to pull the baby out."

I turn away.

I look back at Angel.

She had always been there for me. She was my family. She kept this group at peace. She had stopped crying. She was now just watching.

A baby's crying breaks my thoughts.

We all turn and look at the bundle of joy in Maggie's arms.

I weakly force a small smile.

We all just sit there in silence.

I take a quick look at Angel who was acknowledging Lori's child.

"We have to go." Maggie says, carefully standing up with the baby in her arms.

"We can't just leave them here.  
They'll turn." Carl says.

No.

Maggie pulls out a gun.

"No." Carl says.

"Carl we have to." I say.

"She's my mom." Carl replies.

I look at Maggie. She's shaking. She walks of with the baby in her arms.

I look over at Carl.

He doesn't look back. He emotionlessly walks over to where Lori and Angel are at.

I follow after him.

I walk over next to Angel.

Lori was surrounded by a pool of blood. She was not moving.

I look over at Angel. She's starring back at us blankly.

I pull out my gun and she stiffens.

"During this entire apocalypse," she begins.

"I had been living on a prayer."

Carl and I pause. I remember something she had told me about wanting her last words to be meaningful.

She turns and locks eyes with me.

"Only the good die young." She says.

I swallow as a tear sliced my cheek.

Carl and I pull out our guns and take aim.

"I'm so sorry by sweet little Angel." I say as I pull the trigger.

* * *

Rachel's P.O.V

We run back outside to where they had all been standing. We had successfully powered off the alarms and the prisoners has proven themselves.

"Hershel!" Rick yells.

Him, Beth, and Jen are locked up in a 4 staired room outside.

"You didn't find them?" Hershel asks.

"We thought maybe they came back out here." Glenn replies.

Where is Angel?

They shake their heads.

"Where's Angel?" I asked.

"I think I saw her go with Maggie." Beth replies.

"What about T? Carol?" Jen asks.

"They didn't make it." Daryl replies.

Fuck. I exhaled in disappointment.

"That doesn't mean the others didn't. We're going back. Daryl Glenn and Rachel you come with-" Rick gets cut off my an infants cry.

We all pause.

We turn around to see Maggie carrying a small baby in her arms.

It was her the baby, Carl, Melissa and...Angel and Lori? No where are they.

Them it hit me. My heart raced.

Rick took step forward.

"Where- where is she? Where is she?" Rick asks.

Maggie shakes her head.

"Oh, no. No!" Rick yells.

He begins to cry as he falls to the floor.

"Where's Angel?" I asked nervously.

Melissa had a red nose and fluffy eyes.

"No. No you're lying!" I yell in disbelief.

"I'm so sorry." She says.

I put my hands on my head.

The rest of the group stayed silent.

I began to cry.

No she wasn't ready.

I look behind me. Daryl looks at me expressionlessly.

This can't be. No. No. No. No.

I yell out in anger.

This wasn't right.

I fall to the floor and begin to cry. What am I supposed to do now?


	19. Chapter 19

**WTF DID I EVEN DO WITH THIS CHAPTER xD oh yeah y'all asked for more rickchel sooo... I had to make Rick let go of Lori easier for obvious reasons :•} I would like NICE reviews, mean reviews make me wanna light myself on fire :•{ also the only reason Rachel didn't hear the phone ring is because Rick was obviously going crazy bc you can't actually get a call from the dead. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯**

* * *

Everything blurred around me. The baby was crying in a hazy manor. She was gone. She was really gone. I didn't even get to say my last goodbye. What am I supposed to do now? How will I go on?

I got that same feeling in my stomach that I got when I witnessed my parents being teared to shreds.

No.

This feeling felt...

Different.

"Let me see the baby." Hershel says.

"We need to feed it. Is there anything that the baby can eat?" Daryl asks

Carl carries the baby over to Hershel.

He starred at her for a few moments before coming to a conclusion.

"The good news is that she looks healthy. But she needs milk. And soon, or not survive." Hershel says.

Daryl tenses.

"No. No way. Not her. We will not lose anyone else. I'll go make a run." Daryl says as he swings on his crossbow.

"I'll cover." Maggie suggests.

"I'll go with you." Glenn says attempting to grab Maggie's hand.

"Well, think about where well go." Daryl says.

I caught Jen's glance. She looked at me with sad eyes. Did she have any family? Of course she did.

"Beth," Daryl says pulling her to the side

Rick is still quiet and not doing anything. He's just standing still. He's obviously overcome with emotion.

Melissa walks over to me and gives me a tight hug.

I hug her back immediately. I may not like her, but I respected her as my sister. This was a tough time, for the both of us.

She cried into my jacket.

"You two take the fence. There too many damaged cars is a problem Glenn, Maggie vamonos." Daryl says.

Glenn and Maggie slip into action.

Rick picks up an axe and angrily walks away towards the prison.

I pull apart from the hug and go after him.

I follow him through a corridor of stairs before we enter the prison.

He spins around.

"Go back with the others!" He yells.

I hesitated at first.

"No! I'm going with you. Wherever you're going." I reply.

He stares at me for a second before turning back around and walking into the hallways.

He was mad. I don't think I had ever seen him get mad. Well not this mad at least.

He was walking pretty fast. Any walker that tried to cross his path was immediately killed.

We stop at a gated door. Rick looks inside of the room for a second before opening the gate with a forceful swing.

There was about 4 walkers in the room. I trailed behind him as they all went down.

He was taking out his anger on the walkers.

"Go back with the others." He says gently this time.

"No." I replied.

He sighs.

He takes a step closer to me.

"I'm not asking you." He says.

I straightened my stance.

"I'm going with you, I just lost somebody too." I said.

It one quick move I'm pushed up against the wall. My back began to ache. His forearm was up against my neck.

He dropped the axe.

I swallowed.

I began to breath heavily. My heart was racing. With each pound it sent vibrations through my body.

In one swift move he pressed his lips against mine.

My heart rate increased. I'm not even sure if it was at a healthy rate.

I instinctively lifted my hand to the back of his neck, pulling on the small curls of his hair.

His tongue moved quickly against mine. It was sloppy. Ok it was really sloppy.

He pulled away from the kiss.

There was an awkward silence.

"I thought you said that wouldn't happen again." I said quietly.

He doesn't respond. He picks up the axe and continues walking.

I take a few moments to process what the fuck has just happened.

I took a deep breath and trailed behind him.

His shirt was stained with blood splatters and dirt. His axe dripped with blood.

He was acting so strange. It wasn't like him. I had to admit it was a bit scary, not knowing if he'd snap at a walker or group member.

We turned a corner. Dead end. Rick walked over to the wall and stood in front of it. He was thinking I guess.

I turned to him. Should I try to comfort him? It was always questions when it came to Rick.

I put my hand on his shoulder. What to say, what to say.

"Look, I know that you loved Lori and treasured her and that losing her really sucked, but I lost my sister. I know that the weeks to come are gonna be the grieving process weeks but we're gonna get through this." I said.

Was that good enough?

He looked at me.

One part of me regretted mentioning Lori but the other part stood by decision.

Everybody knows me as the group bitch but I'm honestly trying to change.

Rick leans slowly towards me.

Fuck not again.

I leaned in. Our lips joined once again. This time the kiss was slow and gentle. Better than the first one.

He buried his hand into my hair, caressing it softy.

My hand went to the back of his neck.

What was I doing?

I saw something standing from the corner of my eye.

"Rick, Rachel?" A voice called.

We immediately pulled apart.

I turned and faced the voice.

It was Glenn. How long had he been standing there?

"Everyone is worried about the both of you. You shouldn't be in here." He says.

He shines the flashlight on me.

"Melissa left Rachel. She took all her things and ran." Glenn says.

Fuck. Another one gone. I sighed in annoyance.

Rick turns around.

Glenn's eyes widen. I don't blame him. If I were in his shoes and saw Rick covered in blood, I'd probably be as equally shocked.

"C'mon." Glenn continues.

We don't reply.

Glenn swallowed. He took a few steps closer to us.

"Rick. You do not have to do all this on your own. Okay? Our cell block is cleared. We Just close all back doors." Glenn stammers.

A look of fear took over his face.

"Rick, Rachel?" He asked once again.

Rick takes him by the collar of his shirt and pins him against the wall.

Glenn begins to breath heavily.

All I could do was stand there.

Rick stares at him for a moment before throwing him of the wall.

Glenn fixes his shirt.

We don't say anything.

Rick walks off again.

I take one last look at Glenn before following him.

"So what? You plan on raiding the hallways until we die?" I asked.

He doesn't respond.

When I get back to the group I'm gonna tell Angel everything that happene- oh yeah.

Son of a bitch.

Now I do feel lonely. With my sister dead and my other one gone, there really isn't anything to live for. Before I met the group, it was me an Angel. She was my only reason to keep going. This new world was ugly and horrible. It was a world that I defiantly did not want to live in. But I had no choice. There used to always be something worth fighting for but now it's just...empty and pointless.

We enter another room. There was a dried blood of pool in the center.

I sat down next to the wall.

Rick roamed the room for a moment.

He picks up a circular object from the floor.

I heard the growling of a walker.

I quickly scramble back up.

Rick walks into a hallway of the room.

There was a walker sitting on the floor over the wall.

Rick walks over to it. He leans over it and puts his foot over his hand.

He pulls out his gun and forces it inside the growling walkers mouth.

Rick screams before pulling the trigger.

Blood splatters on the wall.

He takes out his life.

He repeatedly stabs the walker in the stomach.

He angrily walks back into the room.

He paces around the room for a few moments.

He suddenly stops. He looks at me then at the phone.

I give him a confused look.

He walks over to the phone and slowly picks it up.

What was he doing? The phone didn't even ring. I'm pretty sure it's been disconnected for months.

"Yes. Who is-" Rick says.

No.

He pauses for a moment.

"Where are you?" Rick asks.

He pauses.

"Is there someone on the line?" I asked surprised.

But that's impossible. Unless...he's losing it.

"You could be 1,000 miles away." Rick says.

"Are you- are you someplace safe?" He asks.

He stops. What's going through his head? It was staring to freak me out. Who was he on the phone with?

"What ma- what makes your place so safe?" Rick asks.

He pauses as if someone was on the other line, talking back to him.

"I have a son. I- I have a newborn baby. I'm with a good group of people. Would you be willing- could you take in others? We can pull our weight. We can help you." Rick asks desperately.

This couldn't be happening. Not you too Rick.

"Well, put them on. Let me make a case." Rick continues.

I look at him with sadness and confusion.

"Please, please, don't- don't go.  
Just- please, we're good people here. We just need some help and - we can help, we-" Rick says.

I rubbed my temples. I might as well let him finish.

"Please! You don't understand. You don't know. We're dying. We're dying here." Rick says.

For a few seconds his expression stays perfectly still.

He puts the phone on the table.

He looks at me.

"Who was it?" I asked.

"I don't know." He replies.

He takes a step closer to me.

"They live in a safe place. I asked for them to take us in." He says.

It's not real. Just a hallucination of what we want.

Welcome to the club.

* * *

Rick and I came back to the cell block. We changed into some cleaner clothes and joined the others.

We walk to a gated door that led to the room.

Rick pushes the door gently.

"Everybody okay?" He asks.

All eyes turn to us.

"Yeah, we are." Maggie replied.

I half expected Angel to come up to my aid and ask me if I was bit but that was nothing more than a hazy memory.

We take a few steps towards the group.

"What about you two?" Hershel asks.

Rick and I exchange a look.

"We cleared out the boiler block." Rick replied.

Although I didn't do much of the killing, I nodded in agreement.

"How many were there?" Daryl asks.

"I don't know. A dozen, two dozen." I say.

The group falls silent.

I'm not sure the kiss meant anything or if it would sprout into something else but for now I needed to relax and rest.

"We have to get back. Just wanted to check on Carl." Rick says.

We decided not to tell them about the 'phone call'.

"Rick we can handle taking out the bodies," Glenn says.

"You don't have to." Glenn finishes.

"No we do." Rick replies.

"Actually I'm gonna stay and rest a bit." I say.

Rick looks at me. Sorry I'm tired ok.

I make my way over to an empty chair.

Rick walks over to Daryl.

"Everyone have a gun and a knife?" He asks.

"Yeah,"

"We're running low on ammo, though." Daryl says.

"Maggie and I were planning on making a run this afternoon. Found a phone book with some places we can hit, look for bullets and formula." Glenn adds.

I wonder if he saw. He acted as if Rick had never scared him half to death.

Rick slowly nods.

"We cleared out the generator room.  
Axel's there trying to fix it in case of emergency. We're gonna sweep the lower levels as well." Daryl says.

"Good, good." Rick says, walking back to the entrance.

He takes one last look at the group before walking off.

* * *

I was laying down on my bed in my cell.

I wish my life was back to normal. My life where I had my friends and family all alive and safe.

But then again, if it weren't for the apocalypse I probably would have never met these people.

For the most part I'm glad I did.

I heard footsteps getting closer to my cell that I shared with Melissa.

It was Glenn.

"Hey...uh Maggie and I are gonna go make a run, do you need anything?" He asked.

I thought about it for a second. What do I need? I have enough pads already and it's not that time of the month yet.

"Nope I'm good." I replied.

He nods.

I rolled back to my side and began thinking deeply into my thoughts again.

I noticed Glenn hadn't left.

I turned to face him.

"Anything else?" I asked.

He quickly shakes his head.

"No - no...it's just that...I saw you and Rick..." He stammered.

Oh. That.

Well shit.

"Yeah...kinda awkward huh?" I said.

He nodded.

We stayed in awkward silence for a moment.

"Glenn let's go!" Maggie called out.

Glenn nodded a goodbye before leaving. Talk about awkward.

I sat in my bed. So many emotions were running through my head. Sadness, anger, pity on myself. I remember Rachel at the farm. That was the meanest I could get. When the farm was overrun, something changed in me. I became nicer and more socially active with the group. Now it's like I'm back at that farm stage.

"Hey." A voice said.

I looked up.

It was Jen.

"Hey come in." I said.

She walked over to my bed bunk and leaned on the pole that held it together.

"Melissa left you know." She said looking at the ground.

"I know. Glenn told me." I said.

She took a deep breath.

"She used to talk about occasionally. She would say that she was gonna try to kill you if she ever saw you again." She said.

"She wasn't kidding." I said.

Jen nodded.

We stayed silent for a few seconds.

She looked up at me with pity.

"Look I know what you're going through okay? I had a little brother and a strong mom and dad, but I couldn't keep them-" I cut her off.

"Cut the crap. I don't need anybody's condolences right now." I said annoyingly.

I got and hopped off the bed.

I walked out of the cell leaving a confused Jen behind.

Hershel, Beth, and Carl were there. Beth had the baby in her arms.

I walked over to them slowly.

I eyed the baby. I felt sad that she would have never know what's it's like to live without fear.

"Do you wanna hold her?" Carl asked.

I looked over at him and smiled.

"Sure." I said.

Although I was a little cautious about carrying the baby I accepted anyways.

I looked at her tiny cute face.

She let out a toothless smile as she squealed.

I look over at the group with a smile.

"She likes you already." Carl commented.

I laughed.

"I'm Rachel." I said looking down at her.

We hear footsteps walking into the room.

It was Rick.

He walked over to me and starred at the baby for a moment.

He gently takes her from my arms.

"Hey." He says quietly to her.

With Angel and Carol dead, that left Beth as the only other option for a caretaker. Maybe Jen too. I was for sure not even in the idea considering how bad of a person I am.

I looked over at the baby and Rick. It was a beautiful for all of us.

He kissed her forehead lightly.

He begins to walk slowly outside and we follow.

"She looks like you." Rick says to Carl.

I pfft.

And Shane.

Rick looks straight into the distance.

He looks at me.

Rick begins handling Carl the baby.

"Hey, just- you got her?" Rick asks.

"Yeah." Carl says as the baby is put into his arms.

I begin to follow after Rick as he walks across the prison yard to the entrance gates. Was he hallucinating again?

When we get close enough to the gate all we see is a few walkers.

We take out our guns.

Then in the group of walkers I spotted a woman carrying a red basket.

* * *

**YEESSHHH MICHONNE.**


	20. Chapter 20

**One more episode left of season 4 :'( I have 4x01 notes written down already :•} this chapter is on the episode 3x07 of 3x16 so I'm ahead of the game;)**

* * *

We don't react. We continue to stare at the woman. The walkers weren't attacking her. They weren't even attempting to. She was sweaty and dirty.

I look at Rick with a confused expression then I look back the stranger.

The walkers beside her are growling and biting at the gate.

The one on her left shoulder takes notice.

It faces her and begins to growl.

She rubs the side of her thigh.

Then all the walkers take notice of her. She backs up from the gate and pulls out a longs word.

Whoa. She was defiantly prepared.

From behind us Carl, Hershel, and Jen had caught up to us.

The walkers begin to walk towards her. She takes her sword and slices the head off in one swift move. She limps as she continues backing up.

"Should we help her?" Carl asks.

I continue to watch as Rick leaves my side.

The stranger cuts of another walker's head. She was good.

As they all begin to corner her, she drops her backpack. She manages to kill two of them before Carl takes out his gun.

He guns down the one closest to her.

"Carl!" Rick yells as he comes up to the gate. He fiddles with the keys as he unlocks the lock strapped to the gate.

As soon as the gate is opened, Rick and I pull out our guns.

I fired at one. Then another.

Rick and I go to the stranger's aid.

I shot down another walker.

"Is she bit?" Hershel and Jen ask in unison.

Rick quickly inspects the stranger's body. She has a small hole on her right thigh spilling with blood.

"Gunshot." Rick replies.

More walkers began to appear from the forest in front of the prison.

Rick picks up the stranger. We run back into the prison yard.

We hurriedly burst through the prison doors.

"Carl, get a blanket." Rick orders.

"Beth, water and a towel." Rick says after.

They get into action.

Carl sets a medium-sized blanket on the prison floor. Rick gently puts her on blanket.

"She's not coming in the cell blocks." Rick says.

The stranger was breathing heavily. She attempts to grab her sword.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Steady now," Rick says.

"All right. All right." He continues.

She attempts to grab her sword again.

"Hey, hey." I say as I kick the sword farther from her reach.

She looks up at me holding anger in her face.

"We're not going to hurt you unless you try something stupid first, all right?" Rick says to her.

She doesn't respond.

"Rick!" Somebody yells.

We turn to look at Daryl who was at the entrance of the cell block.

"Who the hell is this?" Daryl asks.

Rick turns and looks at the stranger.

"You wanna tell us your name?" Rick asks.

She doesn't respond

"You wanna tell us your name?" Rick asks again, louder this time.

She doesn't reply again. She keeps a stony looking her face.

"Y'all come on in here." Daryl says gesturing to the cell block

Rick stands up.

"Everything all right?" Rick asks Daryl.

"You're gonna wanna see this." Daryl says.

"Go ahead. Carl, get the bag." Rick says to Carl.

Carl, who was already stuffed with bags on his arms takes the backpack.

"We'll keep this safe and sound." Rick says gesturing to the strangers sword.

The stranger swallows.

"The doors are all locked. You'll be safe here. And we can treat that." Rick says.

"I didn't ask for your help." The stranger replies.

This bitch.

"Doesn't matter." Rick says as he makes his way closer to Daryl.

"Can't let you die." Rick says as he walks into our cell block.

I follow after him.

Daryl locks the room in where the woman was at before taking the lead.

He takes us to a cell on the bottom floor.

I look into the cell and see Carol sitting on the bed.

I sigh in relief and joy. Thank god she was alive. That's one less down.

"Oh, God. Thank God." Carol says as she gets up and hugs Rick.

"Thank God. Thank God." Rick says.

I felt like crying. But not crying for sadness but for happiness.

Carol pulls away from Rick and comes to me.

I hug her back tightly.

"How?" I asked Daryl.

"Solitary. Poor thing fought her way into a cell. Must have passed out," Daryl says.

"Dehydrated." He continues.

Carol pulls away from the hug.

"Where's Angel?" Carol asks with a weak smile.

I shake my head as I look down at the floor.

"Oh god...I'm so sorry." She says.

Beth comes in with the baby in her arms.

Carol smiles. Then it quickly turns into a frown.

She looks at Rick.

"I'm sorry." She says, voice cracking.

"For the both of you." She continues.

She sniffles. She rubs her eyes.

"Oh, God." She says.

She begins to cry. It must be hard to be hit with two deaths at once.

* * *

We enter back into the room where the stranger was at to interrogate her. Something stemmed off about her. She wouldn't even tell us her name.

"We can tend to that wound for you, give you a little food and water, and then send you on your way. But you're gonna have to tell us how you found us and why you were carrying formula." Rick says, taking stance in front of her.

We all begin to crowd around her in a circle formation from where she sat.

"The supplies were dropped by a young Asian guy with a pretty girl." She finally says.

No. Glenn and Maggie.

"What happened?" Rick asked.

"Were they attacked?" Hershel asked.

I noticed that Glenn and Maggie hadn't been back for a while. More than a while.

"They were taken." She says.

"Taken? By who?" Rick asks.

The stranger stands up.

"By the same son of a bitches who shot me." She says.

I lifted an eyebrow.

"Hey, these are our people. You tell us what happened now!" Rick yells putting his fist on her thigh.

"Don't you ever touch me again!" She yells back.

We pull out our weapons.

"You'd better start talking or you're gonna have a much bigger problem than a gunshot wound." I threaten.

She gives me a blank look. She sits back down on the table.

"Find 'em yourself." She mumbles.

Rick motions for us to put our guns away.

Silence.

"You came here for a reason." Rick says.

Whatever the hell that meant.

She looks at me again. She's good but I'm not sure she can be trusted. It'll take some time for her presence to feel normal around me if she stays which most likely she probably won't.

"There's a town. Woodbury. About 75 survivors. I think they were taken there." She says.

"A whole town?" Rick asks.

More survivors. More people. More problems.

"It's run by this guy who calls himself the Governor. Pretty boy, charming, Jim Jones type." She adds.

Oh god.

"He got muscle?" Daryl asks.

"Paramilitary wannabes. They have armed sentries on every wall." She says.

The governor? This guy sounded fucking ridiculous.

"You know a way in?" Rick asks.

"The place is secure from walkers, but we could slip our way through." She says.

Rick looks back at Daryl and I.

"How'd you know how to get here?" He asks looking back at the stranger.

"They mentioned a prison, said which direction it was in, that it was a straight shot." She replies.

Rick stays quiet.

"This is Hershel, the father of the girl who was taken and that's Jen a local nurse, They'll take care of that." He says gesturing to them.

Jen waves a friendly hello.

She was always smiling and happy and cheerful. I bet that behind that smile she's suffering, dying, or depressed. It's really amazing what a smile can hide.

"Rachel, we need to talk." Rick says.

Fuck. Those where the worst 7 words that could come out of anyone's mouth. It could either be bad or good. And for the most part it was always bad.

I followed him into the cell block while the others stayed with the mysterious stranger.

We walk into an isolated cell that was currently being claimed by Carl.

He turned to face me.

I swallowed.

"What did you wanna talk about?" I asked nervously.

"The phone call." He said.

Oh thank god. It wasn't for what I was thinking it was.

"Did they ever call back?" I asked vaguely.

"They did." He replied.

I took one look at his face. He knew it.

"Why didn't you say anything?" He asked.

"It seemed like it was helping you. I thought it was best if I let you hallucinate about a safe haven then to give up on us." I said.

He nodded.

Should I bring it up? Or should I leave it as another mistake? If I never brought it up it was gonna stay itching in my mind for the rest of my life. If I did bring it up, anything could happen from that moment on.

Be brave Rachel. I took a deep breath.

"Anything else you wanna talk about?" I asked.

I tried to make it as obvious as possible of what I meant.

"And don't give me any of that 'it was a mistake' crap because I won't buy it this time." I said.

He stiffened.

"Rachel..." He began.

I sighed.

He didn't say anything.

I rolled my eyes.

Okay I guess I was gonna have to be the one to talk.

"Listen, you kissed me and you liked it I know. Who wouldn't?" I said.

He cracks a small smile.

"Trust me, I really liked it too. Okay? But I know you're going through a tough time right now. If you need time, take as much as you'd like." I said.

Whew. My heart was racing. That was probably one of the most awkward things I've ever had to say to a man.

He hadn't made any type of reaction.

I suddenly felt stupid and regretted saying it.

He took my hand.

I resisted.

"We should be just friends right now." I said quickly.

The stranger and Jen passed by the cell with the stitching equipment.

Alrighty. This was it. This has passed the level of extreme awkwardness.

I looked up at him and smiled before lightly pecking him on his cheek where his beard was growing.

I walked off out of the cell as fast I could.

Son of a bitch.

* * *

"How do you know we can trust her?" Oscar asked.

"This is Maggie and Glenn. Why are we even debating?" Beth asks.

"We're not." Rick replied.

We were huddled around the stairs deciding on wether or not we were gonna trust the stranger. She could've killed them for all we know.

"I'll go after them." Daryl comments.

"You can't go alone." I say.

My stab wound had healed, finally. So now there was I had no wounds of any type to stand in my way.

"I'll go," Jen says.

"If someone gets hurt on the way, you'll need someone." She says.

"Me, too." Axel adds.

"I'm in." Oscar the other prisoner says.

The trip to Woodbury was gonna be a big regret for me.

* * *

We're currently driving to this so called Woodbury.

Rick, Jen, Daryl, Oscar, Michonne, and I.

We had learned that the strangers name was Michonne. She was nice enough, but she was hiding something. I don't know what but I know she is. She didn't look like the type to have had kids but I can never be sure. The apocalypse can change you. I didn't look like the type to have been in a relationship. The first time I killed a walker, Angel was taken back. But in this new era, there was going to have to be things done. Some I may not want to do and some I'd gladly do.

Rick has gotten more protective of me.

I mean he was always protective but this went over the hill.

I looked over at Jen who was sitting next to me. She was looking outside of the window enjoying the view.

Her wrists her scared with cuts. Some faded and some recent.

The car came to a sudden stop.

Michonne gets out of the car door followed by Rick then the rest of us.

"They have patrols. We're better off on foot." She says when we're all out of the car.

"How far? Night's coming." Rick says.

"It's a mile, maybe two." She replies.

We see a walker out into the distance.

Oscar opens the trunk. We scrambled to get our supplies.

I take out some ammo and an extra knife.

As soon as everybody grabs everything they needed, we headed into the forest. Rick, Daryl, and I took the lead.

It's silent. An awkward silence.

"You know, what you did for me, for my baby, while I was working things out, thank you." Rick says to Daryl.

"It's what we do." Daryl replies.

The baby was adorable. Such a shame that this would be her fucked up childhood.

A walker comes out from the trees.

"Rick, Rachel Down!" Daryl yells in a hushed tone.

I looked around and saw more walkers emerging.

"Get in formation. No gunfire." Rick informs.

I take out my knife.

I stab one coming up from my left. Another one only comes to replace it.

"There's too many of them." Daryl says.

I turn around and see more and more walkers.

"This way." Rick says as he runs through a passageway into the forest.

The rest of us follow as quickly as we can.

"Through there!" Rick yells as a shed comes into view.

"Come on."

Rick opens the shed door and we pour in in huffs.

"Get the door."

I slam the door.

"Keep it down. Keep it down." Rick whispers.

"Sorry." I whispered back.

Distant walker growling could be heard.

"The smell." Daryl says.

I take a sniff of the air. Oh my fucking god. It smells like a dying animal.

Daryl shines his flashlight around the room.

"Rachel I'm here."

"You're going to die."

"Can you hear me."

"It's not safe there."

"They're coming."

"He's coming back."

All the voices were whispering in my ears all at once. The voice reminded me of somebody else's voice. Not Angel's or Melissa's.

I grunted and covered my ears with my hands.

They quieted down into nothing.

"...What the hell is that?" Oscar asks from behind me.

I walk over to where Daryl was shining his flashlight.

"It's got to be a fox or what's left of one." Daryl replies.

We move to back of the shed quietly and slowly. The floor boards creaked with every step we took.

Daryl flashed his light on the carcass of a dead and ripped dog.

"I guess Lassie went home." Daryl comments.

A thumping and snarling sound breaks the silence.

They found us.

"Ah! Who the hell are you?!" A stranger's voice yells.

We all turn to him in surprise. How did we not notice him?

"We don't mean any harm." Rick says lifting his gun.

We all take aim on him.

"Get outta my house!" The stranger yells.

He pulls out a riffle.

"Okay, okay, okay. We will, but we can't right now." Rick says in a hushed voice.

He looks back at the door then at the stranger.

The growling and gnawing grows around the shed.

"Now!"

"Shut him up." Michonne says.

"Get out right now!"

"Listen sir you need to shut the fuck up or I'll burn down this shed and use your skeleton as a decoration in my cell block." I threatened in a hushed tone.

Such a colorful insult.

"There are walkers outside." Rick adds.

The stranger stops to listen to the snarling and growling of walkers outside. Their rotting fingernails are scratching at the wooden boards.

"I'll call the cops!" The stranger yells.

"I am a cop." Rick replies.

The stranger takes time to eye every member of our group carefully.

"Now I need you to lower the gun.  
Don't do anything rash. Everything's fine. Let's just- let's just take this nice and slow, okay? Look at me.  
Hey, hey." Rick begins.

The stranger lifts his gun.

"Show me your badge." The stranger demands.

Please.

"All right. It's in my pocket, It's in my pocket. Now, I'm just gonna reach down nice and slow." Rick says.

Rick lunges forward to the stranger and the stranger pulls the trigger.

I yell as I feel a sharp pain on my right thigh.

"Rachel!"

"Let go! Let go of me!" The stranger yells.

I fall to the floor and Jen comes to my aid.

"Don't open that door!" Rick yells.

The walkers growl outside.

Rick comes down next to me.

"Where are you hit?" Rick asks frantically.

I groan in pain.

"Her thigh. It's too dark in here for me to stitch her up. She's loosing blood." Jen

From my side view Daryl and Oscar throw out the strangers dead body into the pile of walkers waiting outside.

"Go out through the back door!" Rick yells.

He lifts me up over his shoulder and we run out through the back door of the shed.

We run through the forest as a few walkers notice us and follow us.

My thigh was throbbing.

"Rick we need to stop. I need to stitch her up!" Jen yells as we run.

Rick comes to a sudden stop.

He puts me on the ground.

I groan in pain once again.

Jen takes out all her equipment as the rest of the group circles around me.

"Stay with me! Keep your eyes opens." Rick says.

"Just leave me for walker food and go save Glenn and Maggie!" I reply.

I pant.

"No! Not after what we started!" Rick retorts.

BAM. That's all I wanted to hear.

The growling of walkers surfaces.

The others pull out their weapons.

"Hurry!"

"I'm going as fast as I can!" Jen says while she inserts the string in and out of my wound.

* * *

I was already stitched up and alive luckily.

I limped the rest of the ride.

It was night time. We were close to Woodbury according to Michonne.

Rick wouldn't let me get one step in front of him.

The group comes to a sudden stop.

"We're here." Michonne says.

I look over to the ending of the forest and see a large tall wall.

The barrier of Woodbury.


	21. Author's Note2

OKAY SO AN EARTHQUAKE JUST HIT WHERE I LIVE ITS A 5.3 LIKE 5 MINUTES AGO xD IF ANYTHING HAPPENS I LOVE YOU GUYS THANK YOU FOR READING :) 


	22. Author's Note3

FUUUCKKK ANOTHER EARTHQUAKE ALRIGHT IM TYPING AS FAST AS I CAN I WANT TO UPLOAD THESE CHAPTERS BEFORE I DIEEEE (((;:: 


	23. Chapter 23

**Ok guys so I'm getting closer to the episode where the governor dies and the prison gets destroyed and they all separate again. Hence me getting closer, I would like to know where you guys would like to see my character bunk with when they separate. It could either be with Glenn and Abraham, Maggie Sasha and Bob, Carol and Tyreese, by herself and then she bumps into another one of the group members ( which one if you chose this one? Not Rick or Michonne ) or by herself. It can't be with Daryl and Beth bc their 2 person story line is cute and it can't be with Rick or Michonne so it can create the suspense of being separated. You can either review your answer or private message me (:**

* * *

There are about a dozen men standing as guards on the top of the walls with guns.

We get into a circle formation.

"All right, we need to downsize." Rick says.

We pull out our guns.

"Ain't no way we're gonna check in all them buildings, not with all them guards there." Daryl adds.

All the guards were aiming everywhere. I can only imagine how many more are inside.

We hear a tree brisling from behind us.

We all turn and aim quickly at it.

It's Michonne.

I sigh in relief.

"All right, let's go." Rick says.

We walk behind a rusting car to the side.

I had been limping for the past 2 hours. I stayed in the middle and Daryl stayed in the back.

A white one floored building comes into view.

We get to the back and we pause. No noise comes from the building.

Rick slowly walks up into the back door and opens it slowly.

Soon we're all in. There's jars and cabinets and cloth all over the floor.

"This is where you were held?" Daryl asks.

"I was questioned." Michonne replies.

The room was dark. There was some light at least.

We weren't sure to wether or not believe Michonne's story about Glenn and Maggie. She seemed a little to unpredictable.

"Any idea where else they could be?" I asked.

Daryl goes over to the window and moves the curtain slightly.

"I thought you said there was a curfew." He says not taking his eyes off the window.

"The street is packed during the day.  
Those are stragglers." Michonne says.

"If anyone comes in here, we're sitting ducks." Rick says joining Daryl by the window.

"We gotta move."

"They could be in his apartment." Michonne suggests.

"Yeah? What if they ain't?" Daryl asks turning to her angrily.

"Then we'll look somewhere else." Michonne replies sternly.

"You said you could help us." Rick says turning to her.

"I'm doing what I can!" She replies in a hushed tone.

"Then where in the hell are they?" Oscar asks.

Everybody was ganging up on her. Maybe she knew where Glenn and Maggie were at. Maybe she killed them. Maybe she's leading us into a trap.

"Hey." Rick says to us.

We walk to the back of the building and Michonne stays in the front:

We huddle around each other again.

"If this goes south, we're cutting her loose." Rick says quietly.

"You think she's leading us into a trap?" I asked.

"Right now it's the blind leading the blind. Let's split up." Daryl suggests.

Rick was about to open his mouth to say something before we heard keys rattling and the doorknob attempting to be turned.

We all moved quickly and hid in separate spots.

I hid next a curtain.

The door opens with a creak. Somebody steps in as the floorboards creak with every step.

He closes the door gently.

"I know you're in here. I saw you moving from outside." The stranger says.

He walks around.

He's getting closer and closer to where we were hiding.

"All right, now. You're not supposed to be in here and you know it." The stranger continues.

My heart was racing. I took a quiet deep breath.

"Who's in here?" The stranger asks.

He finally gets to the back where we were hiding.

Rick goes up to him with force. He pushes him up to a wall as we emerge from where we were hiding.

"Shut up. Get on your knees." Rick says pointing a gun at the strangers face.

"Hands behind your back. Zip tie him." Rick says to Daryl.

The stranger kneels quickly. He begins to breath heavily.

"Where are our people?" Rick asks him.

"I don't know." The stranger replies in a frightened tone.

"You are holding some of our people. Where the hell are they?" Rick asks louder this time with his gun still positioned at the strangers face.

"I don't know." The stranger replies wearily.

Rick thinks for a second.

"Open your mouth." He says to the stranger. He shoves a small towel in his mouth and Daryl hits the back of the strangers head with his crossbow.

The body falls to the floor.

Rick gets up and we all break from our circle around the stranger.

Just then we hear gun shooting and screaming coming from outside.

We get close to the door slowly and quietly.

Rick opens the door and we ran out. We had our weapons ready. We ran in a circle along all the other buildings. There was a market a salon. It was all like a real town. A new start.

"This way." Michonne says.

We enter through a back door and Rick takes lead. The hallway is long and narrow.

We entered a small room. We duck as we hear voices in the other room.

"...Glad we could catch up." A strangers voice says.

We all exchange glances. We hear faint crying and a male and female voice.

We found them.

Daryl takes out a can of tear gas and throws it inside the room where Maggie and Glenn were being held captive.

We quickly run into the room and hear coughing and choking. Daryl takes Glenn and Rick takes Maggie.

We run through the hallway and run out the door with a severely beat up Glenn and a tear stained Maggie.

"Come on." Rick says.

We pass by a small building.

"Inside, quick!" Rick says as he opens the door and we all quickly pour in.

I slam the door.

"Ain't no way out back here." Daryl says.

Glenn falls to the floor.

Maggie and Jen come down next to him.

"Rick, how did you find us?" Maggie asks.

He doesn't respond.

"How bad are you hurt?" Jen asks Glenn inspecting his face.

"I'll be all right." Glenn choke out.

He did not look okay. His face was bruised and bleeding.

"Where's that woman?" Maggie asks not taking her eyes off Glenn.

"She was right behind us." Rick says.

He looks around the room.

He moves away to window

"Maybe she was spotted." Oscar suggests.

_Unpredictable_.

"Want me to go look for her?" Daryl asks.

"No. We gotta get them out of here. She's on her own." Rick says.

He moves away from window.

My thigh began to hurt. The painkillers were back at the prison. Fuck.

"Daryl, this was Merle. It was. He did this." Glenn says through rough breaths.

Who was that? Was he an old group member that I didn't know about or something?

"You saw him?" Daryl asks as he stiffens.

"Face to face," Glenn begins.

"Threw a walker at me. He was gonna execute us." Glenn finishes.

"S-So my brother's this governor?" Daryl asks nervously.

So Merle is his brother. Wow.

"No, it's somebody else." Maggie says.

"Your brother's his lieutenant or something." Maggie continues.

Daryl thinks for a moment.

"Does he know I'm still with you?" Daryl asks.

"He does now." Glenn says.

He coughs. Jen dabs his face with a wet towel.

Maggie strokes his cheek. So Daryl has a brother who is working for the governor. Fantastic.

"Rick, I'm sorry. We told him where the prison was. We couldn't hold out." Maggie says.

"Don't. No need to apologize." Rick responds.

Rick looks outside window. Great they knew where the prison was at.

"They're gonna be looking for us." Maggie says.

"We have to get back. Can you walk? We got a car a few miles out." Rick asks Glenn.

"I'm good." Glenn says.

All right.

They pick Glenn up slowly.

We all began to set up to go back outside.

"Hey, if Merle's around, I need to see him." Daryl says to Rick.

"Not now. We're in hostile territory." Rick replies.

"He's my brother. I ain't-"

"Look at what he did! Look, we gotta. we gotta get out of here now." Rick says.

"Maybe I can talk to him. Maybe I can work something out." Daryl says desperately.

"No, no, no. You're not thinking straight. Look, no matter what they say, they're hurt. Glenn can barely walk. How are we gonna make it out if we get overrun by walkers and this governor catches up to us? I need you. Are you with me?" Rick asks Daryl.

Daryl eyes him.

"Yeah." He says after a few seconds.

Rick nods.

Jen comes up to me.

"How's your leg?" She asks.

I look down at my aching thigh.

I swallow.

"As soon as we're out of here and back at the prison, I'll get you those painkillers okay?" She asks.

I nod. She walks over back to Glenn.

Daryl takes out another can of tear gas.

We huddled around door.

"On three. Stay tight." Rick says looking over at me.

"One,"

My heart pounded.

"Two,"

I took a deep breath.

"Three."

Here we go.

Rick swings open the door.

We ran out with our weapons ready.

"Let's go!"

"There they are!" Someone yells from the wall.

Daryl throws out his can of tear gas.

They begin shooting at us. Bullets are being shot from every direction.

I fired at a guard who was a few feet away from me.

Grunts and screams were being heard throughout the town.

"Go, go, go!" Rick yells.

We all run into the entrance of a building that had walls barricading us for cover.

"Where did they go?!" Someone yelled.

The tear gas was still in the air.

"How many?" Oscar asks.

"I didn't see." Maggie says.

"I couldn't."

"Don't matter. There's gonna be more of them. We need to move." Daryl says.

We all reload our guns.

I was sweating. With every step I took my thigh did not get any better.

"Any grenades left?" Rick asks.

I revealed the 5 grenades that were strapped on the inside of my jacket.

Don't ask how I got them.

"Get 'em ready. We gotta gun into the wall." Rick says.

I hand Rick a grenade.

"You guys go ahead. I'm gonna lay down some cover fire." I say.

"I'll go with you. Can't go alone." Daryl says.

I nod.

"No, we gotta stay together." Maggie says sternly.

"Too hairy. We'll be right behind you." Daryl says while reloading his gun.

I reload mine after him.

"Ready?" Daryl asks.

We all run from our cover spot. Daryl and I stayed behind gunning down who we could so the others could get to safety.

We got down behind a bench.

I gunned down one guard.

"Get them!" A guard yells.

"Rachel! Daryl! Go!"

We don't attempt to get up or return to the group. We continue firing at who we could.

* * *

"What can I say, hasn't been a night like this since the walls were completed," A man says through a microphone.

Daryl and I had been captured. They put black sacks over our heads and they led us somewhere. An arena I'm guessing. They was a crowd.

And I thought we were past it- past the days when we all sat, huddled, scared in front of the TV during the early days of the outbreak. The fear we all felt then, we felt it again tonight. I failed you. I promised to keep you safe." The man on the microphone continues.

"Hell, look at me. You know, I- I should tell you that we'll be okay, that we're safe, that tomorrow we'll bury our dead and endure, but I- I won't, because I can't. Because I'm afraid." The voice said.

What the hell was this? Was that the governor?

"That's right. I'm afraid of terrorists who want what we have. Want to destroy us! And worse because one of those terrorists is one of our own." He continued.

He's labeling us as terrorists? One of us works for the governor?

"Merle the man I counted on, the man I trusted. He led 'em here. And he let 'em in. It was you. You lied, betrayed us is one of the two of the terrorists. Merle's own brother. " The man said.

The crowd gasped.

Were shoved into the crowds view.

They push us somewhere.

They removed our sacks.

I saw the man with the microphone. I also saw a man with a sword for a hand.

I looked behind me and saw a crowd sitting down on bleachers or something.

"What should we do with them, huh?" The man asked through the microphone.

"Kill them!" The crowd yelled.

"What? - What you want?" The man asked again.

"Kill them! Kill them!"

"You wanted your brother. Now you got him." The man says.

Daryl and the man with sword for a hand exchange a glance.

_Merle_.

My heart was racing.

I looked behind at Merle and saw someone.

Someone who I never thought I'd see again.

My heart nearly stopped.

It was Lance.


	24. Chapter 24

**You can call me a dedicated fanfic author. Or you can call me crazily obsessed with sharing my imagination that's up to you. Who saw the season finale? Omfg I HAD LIKE 3 HEART ATTACKS DURING THE EPISODE WAAAHH ok anyways from now on I'm gonna add three hashtags to this little author's note thing describing the chapter so this chapters hashtags are { #rememberme #youmustbenewhere #heysamurai } :•}**

* * *

_I brought in my grocery bags from the trunk of my car with my fiancée and sister.  
_

_They'd been cheating. I'd known for 3 days and today I was going to confront them._

_I set down the bag of Ragu sauce. Melissa came in and set down a bag of oranges on the table._

_The car outside clicked meaning it was now locked and Lance came in._

_"That it?" Melissa asked._

_"Mmhh." He said._

_He went to my refrigerator and got himself a can of coke._

_Now or never._

_"Guys..." I began._

_They turned to look at me._

_I swallowed._

_"Why?" I asked with watery eyes._

_"Why what?" Lance asked nervously sharing a glance with Melissa._

_"Why cheat on me? If I'm not good enough tell me your unhappy but don't cheat on me." I said._

_I wiped away a tear._

_The room fell silent. I really thought he was the one. I thought we'd have kids and grow old together. Nope._

_I'm never going to find love again I thought._

_"Ok well I'm not going to deny it. It's been going on for about 2 years." Melissa says finally._

_My heart broke._

_"I trusted you." I choked out._

_"Yeah? Well you got boring! That's why I did it. You're selfish, you're too calm. It's ruining this relationship. We haven't done anything 'exciting' in 5 months!" He says._

_I grasped the mini cross around my neck._

_"Well if that's all you care about leave my sister out of it!" I yelled._

_We began to yell back and forth to each other._

_A few things were thrown._

_A banging on my window break our screams._

_We all turned to look. It was my neighbor. A drug addict party girl and her shoulder was spewing with blood. She was gnawing at my window. She was growling and snarling. Her skin turned a her horrendous color. What the fuck was that?_

_"Melissa where's Angel?" I asked slowly._

_"She's-she's upstairs." She replied nervously._

_"Get Angel, pack your things and run." I said._

That was the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw him.

He didn't die. He didn't wasn't teared apart, he was here.

Daryl and I were still in the middle.

The crowd chanted death threats.

We exchanged a look.

"...Well, prove it. Prove it to us all. Brother against brother." The governor says.

"Winner goes free. Fight to the death." He continues.

The crowd roars in satisfaction.

I get pushed back.

"Come on, Merle!" The crowd yelled.

"Yeah, Merle!"

Daryl and Merle look at each other.

"Rachel?!" Someone yells through the crowd roars.

It was Lance and he was calling me from the other side.

I ignored him.

"Yeah! Y'all know me!" Merle says.

Merle tackles Daryl to the floor and gives him a hard kick to the stomach.

"I'm gonna do whatever I got to do to prove that my loyalty is to this town!" Merle yells.

He kicks Daryl again and whispers something to him as Daryl grabs his neck.

Two buff guys bring in walkers.

Merle and Daryl were basically killing each other and Daryl was loosing.

"Daryl!" I yelled.

Alright it's time I took matters into my own hands.

I scanned my body for weapons. No they had taken my gun.

I checked my jacket.

Score. These guys were stupid as hell.

I took out a grenade.

The crowd and the governor paid no attention to me.

I jumped into the circle. I took the grenade out and put my finger on the safety pin ring.

"Grenade!" Someone yelled.

Before I could pull it off I was tackled to the floor.

I received a hard punch to the face by somebody.

It was...the governor?

"You like throwing grenades and ruining my show?!" He yelled.

He gave me another hard punch in the face.

My nose began to bleed as I rolled to the side.

He gave me a hard kick to the stomach.

I spit up blood. My thigh beyond hurt now.

From the side Daryl and Merle killed the walkers that were brought in.

He punched me in the eye then my cheekbone.

"Philip no, stop this! Philip, stop this!" A woman yelled.

It was Andrea. What.

He brought me up by the collar of my jacket.

"You will obey me." He says.

I spit blood in his face.

Okay that was honestly an accident there was just to much blood in my mouth.

Just then gun shooting ran through the arena.

Tear gas cans were thrown. Yes they came back for us.

The governor dropped me to the floor and he ran off somewhere.

The gas began to blind me.

Daryl came in and picked me up. He tossed my arm over his shoulder. By now I could barely walk and I was loosing some blood.

"Rachel Merle, come on." Daryl says.

Merle kills a walker in front of us.

Daryl takes lead.

"Go! Let's go." Daryl says.

We pass by the group.

"Daryl." Rick says.

Rick comes up to me.

"The governor." Is all I manage to choke out with some blood on my lips.

His jaw clenches.

"Rick we gotta go!" Daryl yells.

We ran out of the arena with me dragging my feet along the cement with a bloody face into the town.

"They're all at the arena. This way." Merle says leading us to the barrier at the entrance of the town.

"You're not going anywhere us." Rick says to him.

"You really want to do this now?" Merle replies.

We all look around behind us for guards while Merle is breaking the barrier with a car part or something.

"Come on, man."

"Rick, come on."

"We've got to go."

We turn around and go through the hole made in the barrier.

There's walkers wandering around the ruins of cars and street signs in front of the town.

Merle takes action first.

"A little help would be nice." Merle says as he removes his sword from the tip of the head of a walker.

"Here." Daryl says to Jen as he removes my arm from his shoulder and passes me to her.

The rest join Merle.

"You are getting all kinds of hurt today aren't you?" Jen asks out of breath.

This bitch.

I turn to face her. The blood running down my nose had stopped.

I knew for sure I had a black eye a busted lip and some dry blood under my nostrils.

"We ain't got time for this."

"Let's go." Daryl says.

More walkers begin to pour out of the woods.

We continued to run through the passageway in which we came from.

* * *

The sun was already out by the time we neared the car. Michonne and Glenn were waiting for us. I wasn't doing so well. Walking and keeping up with the group was hard. My legs and face and stomach and everything was sore as hell. The blood had stopped coming down at least.

"Glenn!" Rick yells.

Two figures appeared next to the other trees.

"Rick? Rick. Rick. Oh, thank God." Glenn says with relief.

"Now we got a problem here," Rick says.

He looks back at us then to Glenn.

"I need you to back up." Rick continues.

Glenn's eyes widen in anger as they catch Merle. Michonne takes out her sword.

"What the hell is he doing here?" Glenn yells.

They try to lunge to him

I stand besides Merle while the others tried to calm Glenn and Michonne down.

"Hey, hey, hey!"

"Hey, put it down!" Rick yells to Michonne.

Merle laughs while he eyes the group.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Put it down!"

They finally calmed down and stopped trying to go for Merle.

"He tried to kill me!" Michonne says.

"He helped us get out of there." Daryl defends.

"Yeah, right after he beat the shit out of you!" Rick yells.

Merle seemed cool. Even though he was supposed to be the enemy he was pretty damn funny. I don't know maybe not to the group but the way he insulted everybody was funny.

"Hey, we both took our licks, man." Merle says.

"Jackass." Daryl mumbles loud enough for everybody to hear.

"Hey, shut up." Merle replied.

"Enough!" Rick says.

"Hey, hey, relax! - Put that down now!" Rick yells.

I loved when he got serious.

"Get that thing out of my face!" Daryl yells to Maggie who had her gun pointed out.

Merle laughs in the back.

"Man, look like you've gone native, brother." Merle jokes.

"No more than you hanging out with that psycho that almost killed Rachel back there." Daryl replies.

Yup. Somehow I'm sucked back into this conversation.

"Oh, yeah, man. He is a charmer, I got to tell you that. Been putting the wood to your girlfriend Andrea. Big time, baby." Merle says with a laugh. He licks his lips.

"What? Andrea's in Woodbury?" Glenn asks.

"Right next to the Governor." I choke out.

Michonne tries to lunge at him with her sword again.

"I told you to drop that!" Rick yells.

He turns to her.

"You know Andrea?" Rick asks.

Michonne tenses.

"Hey, do you know Andrea?" Rick asks louder this time.

She doesn't respond. She keeps a pensive look on Merle

"Yep, she does. Her and blondie spent all winter cuddling up in the forest. Mm-mmm-mmm. Yeah.  
My Nubian queen here had two pet walkers. No arms, cut off the jaws, kept them in chains. Kind of ironic now that I think about it." Merle says.

"Shut up, bro." Daryl says turning to him.

"Hey, man, we snagged them out of the woods. Andrea was close to dying." Merle comments.

"Is that why she's with him?" Maggie asks.

The wind hit the back of my neck. It sent chills all through my back.

"Yeah. Snug as two little bugs." Merle says.

So Andrea banged Shane and the governor and I wouldn't be surprised if she banged Merle too.

Merle takes a step closer to Rick.

"So what you gonna do now, Sheriff, huh? Surrounded by a bunch of liars, thugs, and cowards." Merle insults.

Ok now I see how annoying he is.

"Shut up!" Rick yells to him.

"Oh, man, look at this. Pathetic. All these guns and no bullets in them." Merle adds.

"Merle, shut up!" Daryl yells.

"Shut up yourself! Bunch of pussies you roll-" Merle begins.

I roll my eyes.

Rick goes over to him and hits him on the back of the neck. Merle's body falls like a sack of potatoes to the floor.

Rick and Daryl exchange a look.

"Asshole." Rick says.

* * *

Rick, Glenn, Maggie, Jen, and Daryl were discussing what to do with Merle and Michonne while I stayed with her leaning on the car and Merle locked up next to a tree.

She didn't really like to talk. She was quiet and serious a lot. Maybe I should start a conversation. She isn't gonna stay with us anyways.

I turned to her.

"So." I said quietly.

She faced me.

"You're Rachel right?" She asked.

I nodded.

"Andrea used to talk about you." Michonne says while looking off into the forest in front of her.

That's not a surprise. I beat the shit out of her once and I constantly insulted her. I look around the highway awkwardly.

We had made it to a highway and the long road separated the woods from us.

"Yeah we weren't really friends. She must've enjoyed watching the governor beat me up." I said.

Although Andrea was yelling and begging for him to stop.

"The governor did this to you?" She asked sternly.

I touched my black eye and dried blood on my face.

I nodded. She was about to say something before she was cut off.

"Daryl!"

Daryl was walking away from the group and Rick was following him.

Rick stops him.

I look over at Michonne.

"I'm gonna go see what's up with that." I say.

I walk past Rick and Daryl and head to Glenn, Jen, and Maggie.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Daryl's threatening to leave with Merle." Maggie informs.

Leave? With Merle's crazy ass?

Daryl storms away from Rick and makes his way into the woods where Merle was locked up.

"Daryl!" Rick yells.

Daryl ignores him and keeps walking.

I make my way to Rick.

"Wh-"

"Get in the car." Rick says.

Okay then.

He throws his gun in the trunk and slams the trunk door. He was mad.

He turns to Michonne.

"We patch you up and then you are gone." He says sternly.

She doesn't respond.

I go around the car and open the passenger door. The rest were already in the backseats.

I strap on my seatbelt and rolled down the window. The cool morning air splashes my bruised and bashed face as Rick begins to drive. Luckily nothing had been broken. But what I had learned was that the governor was a terrible person. Any man that hurts a woman either physically or emotionally is stupid. Hearts were meant to be loved not broken.

I looked over at Rick. He kept his focus on the road. Then I looked back at the others. Dirty and exhausted. As soon as we get to the prison I was headed straight to medication and my bed because my leg was killing me. Thank god Jen came along.

This is the start to something bigger. Maybe we'll meet more people, expand our group. Grow some crops, make the prison feel like a real home. Angel would like that. It pained my heart just to think about her. She was to good to go.

Then I felt something wrap around my hand.

It was Rick's hand.

I gave it a light squeeze to reassure him not to let go. Ever.

I wonder if he was thinking about me. He's probably got a lot of things on his mind. The prison, the governor, Judith. Whenever he talked to me or he even stood next to me I got that lottery feeling in my stomach. You know that feeling you get in your stomach from being to excited and feeling like anything could happen. Yeah I got that one often. I bet the rest in the back were thinking 'what the hell'. I smiled to myself.

A wall of familiar gates came into view. Then I saw the tall guard towers and giant prison in the distance. Finally we made it back home.

We drive up to the entrance of the gates as Carl pulls them open.

We drive into the prison and felt safe all over.

Rick let's go of my hand as he stops the car and unbuckles his seatbelt.

He gets out and hugs Carl.

I smiled. Alright I guess I'll have to drive up to the prison. I unbuckled my seatbelt and stepped out of the car. I went around the hood of the car and paused in front of Carl and Rick. Carl broke from the hug and went over to me.

A hug was all I needed right now.

"I'll be up there." I said when I pulled away.

Rick nodded.

I opened the drivers door and strapped myself in and adjusted my hands on the steering wheel.

* * *

We were all at the prison minus Rick and Hershel who were outside discussing something. Jen had given me my medication and now I was cradling baby Judith in my arms. She had some of Shane's features I'll admit that. I just hope she didn't inherit his craziness.

I hear footsteps coming in my direction. I look up to see Rick eyeing Judith. He picks her up slowly from my arms.

I walk over to where the other strangers that had been founded were at. They were a nice looking group. They had a few African American members in their group. Carl had locked them up in here until we came. I eyed them carefully. All they did was look back to me. They didn't say anything. This is what I meant by expanding our team.

* * *

We all walk into the room where the group was at.

Rick being the leader, takes a few steps closer to them. I stay next to Jen and Carl.

"I'm Tyreese." One man says.

"Sasha, Allen, Ben." Hershel says, pointing to each one if them with his crutches.

"How'd you get in?" Rick asks.

"Fire damage to the administrative part of the prison. Wall's down." Tyreese explains.

"That side's completely overrun with walkers. How'd you get this far?" Rick asks.

"We didn't. We lost our friend Donna." Tyreese replies.

Boy do we know what loosing somebody feels like.

"They were lost in the gyms." Carl comments.

We all turned to face him.

"You brought them here?" Rick asks as he turns around and faces Carl.

"He had no choice." Hershel defends.

Rick turns back to the other group slowly.

"I'm sorry about your friend. We know what that's like." Rick says.

I took a deep breath. It took all I had not to cry. Don't cry don't cry don't cry I thought.

"Hershel said you could use some extra hands. We're no stranger to hard work. We'll go out and get our own food, stay out of your hair.  
You got a problem with another group, we'll help with that, too.  
Anything to contribute." Tyreese suggests. The rest of his group stays quiet.

We were conveniently battling the governor right now.

I look over at Rick. He thinks for a moment before responding.

"No." Rick says. What?

"Please. It's like "10 Little Indians" out there. It's just us now." The one called Sasha says.

"No." Rick repeats.

Ah come on.

"Let's talk about this." Hershel begins.

"We can't just keep-" Hershel gets cut off.

"We've been through this. With Tomas, Andrew. Look what happened." Rick says.

"Axel and Oscar weren't like them." Carol comments.

"And where's Oscar now? I can't be responsible." Rick adds.

Where was Oscar. I scanned the faves of everybody in the room. No Oscar.

"You turn us out, you are responsible." Tyreese says.

"Rick." Hershel says.

He walks over to Hershel.

"You've done so much for us. I appreciate that. We all do. We owe you our lives. We've done everything you asked without question. And I'm telling you, you're wrong on this.  
You've got to start giving people a chance." Hershel says.

Silence.

Hershel did have true words of wisdom.

Rick exhales.

Rick looks up then back to us then back then back to us.

"No, no. No, no, no, no. No." He begins to whisper.

Huh?

"No, no, no, no, no. Why are you here? What do you want from me?" Rick yells as he continues to look up.

He walks away from Hershel's side.

"Dad?" Carl asks nervously.

"Why are you-no no no." Rick continues.

Was he hallucinating again? Fuck.

"I can't help you. Get out!" Rick yells.

Who is he talking to? Who is he picturing?

"Get! Get out!" Rick continues yelling.

"Hey, come on." Tyreese says:

"Whoa, it's all good."

"What are you doing?"

"Hey, easy, Rick."

"There's no need to-"

"You don't belong here! Get out!" Rick yells.

He pulls out a gun.

Everybody immediately steps back.

"Please!"

"Relax, brother."

"Relax."

A few small screams were made.

"Get out! Get out!" Rick continues yelling.

"We'll leave. We're going." Tyreese says. Him and his group begin to back up.

"Okay? Ain't nobody got to get shot here." Tyreese continues.

"We're going."

"What are you doing here?!" Rick yells.

"Okay, we're going."

I walk out of the room into the cell block. Rick was going crazy and everybody knew it.


	25. Chapter 25

**YOU GUYS THERE WILL BE A NICER AND MORE LOVABLE RACHEL JUST BE PATIENT PLAESE :) Whenever I read reviews about how mean Rachel is I kinda celebrate. Like that was the goal and as the story goes she gets nicer and more open so if you caught on with that, a big fuck yeah to you. If you haven't noticed Rachel hasn't cussed as much xD thanks to those of you awesome readers who have stuck with me for the longest (: probs gonna lose readers on this next chapter...{ #byebyeaxel #glenntheleader #thenightmare }**

* * *

My body finally began to feel better after 3 days. The governor was stronger than he looked. We were all worried sick that he'd swing by eventually and take the prison and kill us but so far nothing had happened. When Rick threw his tantrum he ran off somewhere outside the prison. With Daryl gone, Glenn sort of got control of the group. He was sorta letting power get to his head.

We were all surrounding him while he drew something in chalk on the floor.

"Right. Now you said you found Tyreese's group here?" Glenn asks Carl who was leaning on the floor in front of him while pointing at something on the floor in chalk.

"Yeah." Carl replies.

"We secured this." Glenn says.

Glenn was dirty and sweaty. The only thing he needed right now was a nice long nap.

"He thought he came through here." Carl says as he points at the chalk drawing.

"Means there's another breach." Glenn says.

"Okay. The whole front of the prison is unsecure. If walkers just strolled in, then it's gonna be cake for a group of armed men." Glenn continues.

He wipes his forehead.

"Why are we even so sure he's going to attack? Maybe you scared him off." Beth suggests.

"He had fish tanks full of heads. Walkers and humans. Trophies." Michonne says.

There was more to the governor than I thought.

"He's coming." Michonne adds.

"We should hit him now." Glenn declares.

What? Does he not see how weak we are at the moment?

"He won't be expecting it. We'll sneak back in and put a bullet in his head." Glenn says.

"We're not assassins." Carol interjects.

Glenn stands up and walks over to Michonne.

"You know where his apartment is. You and I could end this tonight. I'll do it myself." Glenn says to her.

She keeps a straight face.

She thinks for a moment before lightly nodding.

"Okay." Glenn says.

He walks over to me.

"Rachel look at how he left you, I'm sure that you wanna beat this man to death more than anything and if there's one thing we all know about you it's that you don't back down from a fight." He says.

That took me back a little. Memories of beating up Andrea and Beth flooded back into my head.

I made a face.

Maybe he's just going through some phase.

He turns to the rest of the group.

He eyes each one of us.

"He didn't know you were coming last time and look what happened. You were almost killed. Daryl and Rachel were captured and you and Maggie were almost executed." Hershel says.

"You can't stop me." Glenn says as he takes a few steps closer to Hershel.

He kept glancing over at Maggie. Did something happen while they were captured?

"Rick would never allow this." Hershel says.

"You really think he's in any position to make that choice?" Glenn retorts.

"Think this through clearly. T-Dog lost his life here. Lori and Angel too. The men that were here. It isn't worth any more killing. What are we waiting for? If he's really on his way, we should be out of here by now." Hershel says.

"And go where?" Glenn asks angrily.

"We lived on the road all winter." Hershel replies.

"Back when you had two legs and we didn't have a baby crying for walkers every four hours." Glenn says.

Well.

"Glenn I have some pills that calm you down when some-" I begin.

"I don't need pills! I'm not crazy like you. I'm going after the man that hurt Maggie!" Glenn yells.

I glance over at Maggie.

She swallows and closes her eyes.

Might as well let him finish.

"We can't stay here." Hershel says.

"We can't run." Glenn adds.

Maggie breaks the silence with the clacking off her boots and leaves the room.

Glenn sighs and looks back at the group again.

"All right. We'll stay put. We're gonna defend this place. We're making a stand." Glenn finally says.

I half smiled at him.

"Carl, you and I will go down to the tombs. We need to figure out where the breach is." Glenn says turning to Carl.

"You got it." Carl says.

"You'll need some help." Michonne says.

"No, in case anything happens, I need you out here." Glenn says.

He looks around the room and thinks for a moment.

"Who's on watch?" He asks angrily.

Nobody responds.

I really hope Rick came back soon.

* * *

I circled the chair that Beth was strapped to while she cried and yelled for help.

She had been tortured enough. It was time to end it.

I held the axe in my hands with trembling fingers. What the hell am I doing?

I looked down at my blood stained clothes. My hands dripping with blood.

"Help! Maggie!" Beth yelled.

She was sitting in a chair with her arms strapped down and her legs tied up.

One light shown from the ceiling coming from no where. From where the light ended it was all darkness that lead to the kingdom of fear and suffer.

I swallowed and closed my eyes.

_"Do it now."_ A cold voice whispered from over my shoulder.

My eyes snapped open.

It traced it's hand on the side of my neck up to my cheek. It's hand so cold and rough.

I felt it's threatening breath on my neck. My heart began to race.

Beth whined.

"Help! Daryl!" She yelled.

_"Do it."_ The voice said.

The hand traced my cheek. The sharp claws making circles. I craned my neck. I couldn't see it but I knew what it was.

_"Now!"_ It yelled.

I swung my axe as Beth yelled but before I hit anything I opened my eyes.

I woke up to the sound of the gates being opened and Carl and Glenn poured in.

"The tombs outside the boiler room are overrun again." Glenn says out of breath.

I was sweating and my body raced with adrenaline.

I looked around the room.

Still no sign of Rick.

I had fallen asleep on the table next to Carol.

I swallowed and glanced at Beth.

"That whole section had been cleared." She says as she locks the metal door.

"It's a steady stream of walkers." Carl says.

Glenn removes his riot armor.

I felt sick to my stomach. What type of horrible nightmare was that? I felt like crying. That was one of the most traumatic dreams that I had ever experienced.

"We're wasting time." Hershel says as he sits down on the table next to me.

"The Governor is supposedly on the way and we're stuck in here with walkers." He continues.

"Trapped between a rock and a hard place." Carol adds.

"For the last time, running is not an option." Glenn says angrily.

"Glenn, if the tombs have filled up again, it may just be a matter of time before they push in here." Carol replies.

"Or until some fence gives way." Beth adds.

I felt awkward around Beth now.

"What if one of them herds is passing through? Or settled?" Axel suggests.

"Can't handle that with just the few of us with Daryl gone and Rick wandering off." Carol says.

"Okay. All right, we need- we just need to scout the far side of the prison. Find out what's going on." Glenn says calmly.

"You're going out there?" Hershel asks.

"I'll take a car and make it quick." Glenn says.

"I'll drive." Axel declares while he raises his hand.

"No, you stay here. Help with the fortifications. I'll take Maggie." Glenn says.

Hershel sighs.

"You sure she's up to that?" Hershel asks.

Glenn doesn't respond.

We hear metallic noises before Glenn leaves the room.

"It's getting to him. Something happened while they were captured." Hershel says when Glenn is far away enough.

I take a deep breath. I wiped sweat off my face.

"Looked like you were having some dream." Jen comments.

I looked up.

I glanced over at Beth again.

God dammit I'm going insane.

* * *

I needed to get some air so Carl and I were outside guarding the main gate where our cars go in and out.

It was the afternoon. The breeze was light and refreshing. I didn't feel as weird anymore. I took my pills and felt calmer.

Rick was still off wandering somewhere. I planned on talking to him the next time I saw him.

I looked over at Carl. He was looking through the gates. I smiled.

"What are you looking at?" I asked.

He turned to me.

"The trees." He said.

I nodded.

"What was your dream about?" He asked.

I froze. Should I tell him? Naah.

"Walkers." I said with a fake smile.

He smiles back.

"Walkers don't scare me." He says.

How old was he like 13?

From the side Glenn and Hershel were having a conversation next to a truck.

Glenn slams the drivers door and starts the car.

"Heads up." I said.

Carl unlocked the fence and we pulled it open as Glenn drove outside.

The car left dirt flying in the air.

"What's his deal?" I asked Hershel as Carl locked the fence behind me.

He doesn't respond.

I sighed. Dammit where the hell was Rick.

* * *

After 20 more minutes of laughing with Carl at the fence I walked back to the prison and joined Carol outside.

"...and then she slipped on the mud flips on the grass and spills her soda." I said.

Carol and I laughed. I was telling her a story about Angel when she was 9 and she tripped on the curb.

It was memories like that that I missed.

"Did you even help her?" Carol asks with a light laugh.

"Eventually." I said.

She smiled. I smiled back.

"So what's been going on with you and Axel?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing's going on. He's just..." Carol begins.

He's just what? He's sweet he's kinda creepy sometimes but he's nice.

Carol doesn't respond.

"Stress getting to your man Rick?" Axel says, joining us.

"Can you blame him?" Carol says as if I never brought up Axel.

"No. Not at all. In here I've seen plenty of dudes crack." Axel replies.

Yes, the beautiful life of a prisoner.

"But not me. I got on better on the inside. Things made more sense, you know? There were rules. Life was more simple." Axel adds.

Carol turns to him and thinks for a second.

"Didn't you miss your brother?" Carol asks.

Whoa these two spent more time together than I thought.

"My brother? Hell, no. He had a real money problem." Axel says with a light laugh.

He crosses his arms.

"What kind of problem?" I asked.

"He didn't lend me any." Axel replies.

We laughed. I'm actually really glad Rick hadn't killed him. Axel was kinda cool.

"One time that son of a bitch-" Axel begins.

A gunshot rings in the air and Axel falls to the floor.

"Beth!" Carol yells.

"Here!" She replies.

We duck down.

We look around before gunshots began to fire.

I was unarmed.

The governor finally arrived.

Carol and I blocked ourselves from the shots with Axel's body.

In the distance was a car with many men surrounding it. They was a sniper up in our guard tower.

"Carl!" I yelled.

He doesn't respond. The gunshots are coming from every direction.

Then they stopped.

"Beth!" Maggie yells.

I turn to look at her.

"Rachel take one." She says frantically.

I get up and take a gun from her hands.

"Carol, go! Go!" Maggie yells as the gunshots begin again.

Maggie and I run behind a metal object.

We begin shooting back. I'm not sure exactly where they were or how many there were.

They suddenly stop.

A large car suddenly breaks through the main gate in the entrance completely destroying it and parking in the field.

The driver gets out wrapped in riot gear and opens the back.

Walkers begin to pour out.

Son of a bitch.

I began to fire at the walkers. Was this was the governors plan? To make us do hard work again.

I look up at the guard tower and see the sniper.

I looked through my scope and made a headshot. The body fell of the tall tower onto the floor.

They stop shooting and begin piling back into their car.

We all run to the gates and Carl opens them.

Glenn drives in.

Maggie goes to the passenger seat and opens the door.

"You okay?" Maggie asks Hershel as he steps out of the car with his crutches.

"Yes, baby." Hershel replies.

I looked through the fence.

Our yard was once again infested with walkers.

* * *

**Sorry this is SUPER SHITTY it's like 3:34 am rn and I rushed through the chapter ugh goodnight guys :D**


	26. Chapter 26

Hey guys well tomorrow my spring break starts and I'm gonna be taking a week break (: there's a lot of issues going on in my life right now and ugh I can't handle it. I'm not abandoning this story so don't worry I know what that feels like xD I'm gonna be writing chapters still over my break they're just gonna take longer to be posted (: thanks guys I love you. 


	27. Chapter 27

**Hey guys I finished the chapter for 3x16 last night so now I am officially done with season 3 YAS. I need help. Lol I'm having a wonderful time :D this chapter might be triggering for some so read at your own risk (: short chapter today sorry not feeling my best this week with all the bullying and stuff (:**

* * *

We were all in the cell block. Rick had finally come back from wherever the hell he went.

We were waiting anxiously on his decision about what to do about the governor.

He paced around for a minute before stopping and turning to us.

"We're not leaving." He finally says.

"Well we can't stay here." I say.

"What if there's another sniper? A wood pallet won't stop one of those rounds." Maggie says.

I took my jacket off. The once fine black jacket that Beth gave was now faded and dirty with blood.

"We can't even go outside." Beth reclaims.

"Not in the daylight." Jen adds.

Glenn steps up from behind me.

"Rick says we're not running," Glenn says.

He turns to everybody.

"We're not running." He finishes.

"No, better to live like rats." Merle recalls. We locked him up next to prison.

"You got a better idea?" Rick says as he takes a step closer to him.

"Yeah, we should have slid out of here last night and lived to fight another day. But we lost that window, didn't we? I'm sure he's got scouts on every road out of this place by now." Merle replies.

"We ain't scared of that prick." Daryl says from the second floor of the prison.

"Y'all should be. That truck through the fence thing, that's just him ringing the doorbell. We might have some thick walls to hide behind, but he's got the guns and the numbers.  
And if he takes the high ground around this place, shoot, he could just starve us out if he wanted to." Merle continues.

"Let's put him in the other cell block." Maggie says as she twists a towel.

"No. He's got a point." Daryl says.

Oh please.

Maggie throws her towel on the floor and walks towards Merle.

"This is all you!" She yells to him.

"You started this." She says as she walks back to Beth.

Merle laughs.

"What difference whose fault it is?" Beth asks.

She looks at Rick.

"What do we do?" She asks.

"I said we should leave. Now Axel's dead." Hershel comments.

Damn it I missed Axel and his funky mustache.

"Well, we can't just sit here that's for damn sure." I said.

Rick thinks for a moment. He turns around and begins walking away from us.

"Get back here!" Hershel yells.

I raised an eyebrow in surprise. Hershel hardly ever yelled.

He got on his crutches and hobbled to him.

"You're slipping, Rick. We've all seen it. We understand why. But now is not the time." Hershel begins.

Rick turns around slowly.

"You once said this isn't a democracy. Now you have to own up to that. I put my family's life in your hands. So get your head clear and do something." Hershel finishes.

Nobody moves or says anything.

If Hershel yelled at you, he meant business.

Rick didn't respond either. He lightly nodded. Hopefully Hershel got to him.

* * *

I sat on my bed with my back leaning against the wall thinking about my dream. What did it mean? Did it mean I was going to kill someone or something?

I cringed at that thought. I wouldn't kill anybody. That's not me anymore.

I sighed.

What if I did end up killing somebody from our group.

I froze.

I'm too dangerous. I can't even handle myself anymore. It's like I lost control.

I closed my eyes. At least the whispering voices had stopped. The last episode I had was about 4 days ago and I felt so tempted to pull the trigger. What do I have to live for? Angel is gone. Melissa, mom, dad, everybody.

I opened my eyes only to release a tear.

Maybe this was gods way of telling me I need to start over.

I smiled.

I got up from my bed and stretched out my arms.

I took a deep breath.

I walked out of my prison cell and made my towards the rest of the group.

* * *

"Field's filled with walkers. I didn't see any snipers out there, but we'll keep Maggie and on watch." Rick says.

We were gathered next to some stairs.

"I'll get up in the guard tower, take out half them walkers, give these guys a chance to fix the fence." Daryl says.

"Or use some of the cars to put the bus in place." Maggie comments.

I was so exhausted at the moment. I could hardly keep up with what they were saying. My bruises ached and my legs were so wobbly.

"We can't access the field without burning through our bullets." Hershel says.

"So we're trapped in here." Glenn comments.

He sighs.

"There's barely any food or ammo." Glenn adds.

"Been here before. We'll be all right." Daryl reassures.

Glenn takes a step closer to Daryl.

"That's when it was just us. Before there was a snake in the nest." Glenn replies.

We all turn and look at him. He was obviously talking about Merle.

Daryl walks over to him.

"Man, we gonna go through this again? Look, Merle's staying here.  
He's with us now." Daryl says.

"Get used to it." He adds.

"Hey." Rick warns. Glenn doesn't respond.

"All y'all." Daryl says as he climbs up the metal stairs.

Glenn gets closer to Rick.

"Seriously, Rick, I don't think Merle living here is really gonna fly." Glenn finally says when Daryl is no longer within hearing range.

"I can't kick him out." Rick replies.

"I wouldn't ask you to live with Shane after he tried to kill you." Glenn says.

Oh Shane. He hadn't crossed my mind since...actually it's been a while. More than a while.

"Merle has military experience. He may be erratic, but don't underestimate his loyalty to his brother." Hershel adds.

Glenn exhales. He really had some hatred towards Merle and the governor. Or maybe just anybody relating to him.

"What if we solve both problems at once?" Glenn suggests.

Huh. I made a confused face.

"Deliver Merle to the Governor. Bargaining chip. Give him his traitor, maybe declare a truce." Glenn continues.

Nobody responds. He lightly nods before walking away.

* * *

I sat in front of Michonne on the metal table in the cell block. She was quiet. It didn't look like she was leaving soon so I decided I might as well befriend her.

It was a bit awkward because I just sat there in silence trying to think of something to talk about. She kept a serious look on her face the entire time.

I lightly smiled at her.

"So." I said.

She turned to look at me.

"Um...we'll let me introduce myself." I said awkwardly.

That was stupid. Why did I say that?

Beth sat on the stairs with baby Judith in her arms, Carl was 'on watch' for Michonne, Maggie was outside taking watch, Merle was locked up, Hershel, Jen and Carol were having a conversation and the rest were off outside.

"I'm Rachel...Bateman. I have no family in the group, I am in my late 20's and before all of this I was..." I stopped there.

Prepare for embarrassment.

"I was a church singer." I said.

I felt my face getting red.

She cracked a small smile.

"I know it's embarrassing but yeah I sang at my local church." I said.

But I'm not that little innocent church girl anymore.

"What did you sing?" She asked.

"Oh you know...songs about religion and such." I said not wanting to get into detail.

She let out a small laugh.

I really hope she stayed.

* * *

I quickly ran out of the prison with the men. Andrea had showed up. We took out our guns and stopped on the side of a car.

"Go." Rick whispers to Merle.

Merle hobbles to the car in front of us and quickly scans the area.

"Clear!" He says.

We ran to the main gate where Andrea was standing outside with a walker in her arms. It was being harnessed my those animal control neck grabbers.

"Are you alone?" Rick asks.

"Open the gate." Andrea says.

The walker has it's arms cut off.

"Are you alone?!" Rick asks again.

"Rick! Open it!" Andrea replies.

From next to me, Michonne stares at her emotionlessly.

Daryl slides open the gate and Andrea let's go of the walker.

She runs inside out of breath.

"Hands up! Turn around." Rick demands.

He pushes Andrea onto the fence.

He checks her for weapons.

"Get down, on the floor." Rick orders.

She moves away from the fence and falls to her knees.

"I asked if you were alone." Rick says.

"I am." Andrea replies.

Rick gets her bag that was wrapped around her and throws it on the floor.

I still couldn't believe Andrea was alive. She had survived the farm attack and made her way to Woodbury. I gotta say I had seriously thought she died.

"Welcome back."

* * *

We walk into the prison with our guns aiming at Andrea.

She walks down the corridor stairs and goes over to Carol. She gives her a hug.

Daryl closes the door behind me.

I positioned myself next to Rick.

"After you saved me, we thought you were dead." Carol says.

Andrea looks around the group in shock.

"Hershel, my God." She says.

She exhales.

"I can't believe this." She continues.

We don't reply. She looks around again.

"Where's Shane?" She asks.

We all fall quiet.

She sighs.

"And Lori?" Andrea asks looking at Rick.

"She had a girl. Lori didn't survive." Hershel informs.

"Neither did T-Dog or Angel." Maggie adds.

Andrea freezes. She opens her mouth but no words come out.

"I'm so sorry." She says.

"Carl." Andrea begins. She turns and looks at him with pity.

She blinks away tears. She was just so shocked.

"Rachel, Rick, I," Andrea begins.

We don't respond. No need to reopen healed wounds.

She sighs again. She wipes her eyes.

"You all live here?" Andrea asks changing the subject.

"Here and the cell block." Glenn informs.

"There?" Andrea asks pointing in the direction of the cell block.

I nodded.

"Well, can I go in?" She asks walking towards the cell block.

"I won't allow that." Rick says as he stands in front of her.

"I'm not an enemy, Rick." Andrea says.

"We had that field and courtyard until your boyfriend tore down the fence with a truck and shot us up." Rick says.

"He said you fired first." Andrea replies with a confused tone.

"Well, he's lying." I said.

She looks down at the floor then back at us.

"He killed an inmate who survived in here." Hershel adds.

"We liked him. He was one of us." Daryl comments.

"I didn't know anything about that. As soon as I found out, I came. I didn't even know you were in Woodbury until after the shoot-out." Andrea says walking back to us.

"That was days ago." Glenn says.

"I told you, I came as soon as I could." Andrea defends.

She turns to look at Michonne.

"What have you told them?" Andrea asks her.

"Nothing." Michonne replies.

Andrea turns back to us.

"I don't get it. I left Atlanta with you people and now I'm the odd man out?" Andrea asks in disbelief.

"He almost killed Michonne and he would have killed us." Glenn says.

"With his finger on the trigger." Andrea says pointing to Merle.

"Isn't he the one who kidnapped you? Who beat you?" Andrea asks.

We fall silent. Maybe Merle was gonna kill Glenn and Maggie but he cared way more for Daryl. A lot more than he said.

"Look, I cannot excuse or explain what Philip has done. And Rachel I am sorry for everything back at the arena," Andrea says turning to me.

I pfft.

She turns back to the rest of the group.

"But I am here trying to bring us together. We have to work this out." Andrea continued.

"There's nothing to work out." Rick says walking closer to Andrea.

"We're gonna kill him. I don't know how or when, but we will." He says.

"We can settle this. There is room at Woodbury for all of you." Andrea replies.

Merle chuckles.

"You know better than that." Merle comments.

Whatever the hell that meant.

"What makes you think this man wants to negotiate?" Hershel asks.

"Did he say that?" Hershel adds.

"No." Andrea replies.

"Then why did you come here?" I ask.

Andrea takes a step closer to me.

"Because he's gearing up for war. The people are terrified. They see you as killers. They're training to attack." She says.

Daryl takes a step closer to her.

"I'll tell you what. Next time you see Philip, you tell him I'm gonna take his other eye." Daryl threatens.

Andrea tenses.

"We've taken too much shit for too long. He wants a war? He's got one." Glenn says sternly.

Andrea stares at us in disbelief.

"Rick. If you don't sit down and try to work this out, I don't know what's gonna happen. He has a whole town." Andrea says.

She turns to us.

"Look at you. You've lost so much already. You can't stand alone anymore." Andrea says.

We've lost way to damn much. But it only made us stronger.

"You want to make this right, get us inside." Rick replies.

"No." Andrea says.

"Then we got nothing to talk about."

Andrea scoffs

"There are innocent people." She says before Rick walks off.

* * *

A car was parked behind the entrance of the prison.

Carl hands Andrea her bags. She had set up a meeting between Rick and the governor.

"Can you spare it?" Andrea asks.

"Yeah." Rick replies.

She takes one last look around. She lightly smiles.

"Well, take care." She says.

We mumble our goodbyes after her.

She gets into the car.

"Andrea." Rick calls.

He walks over to her and passes her a gun.

"Be careful." Rick says.

"You, too." She says.

And with that, she left.

* * *

By now the moon shown high in the sky. I was still astonished that Andrea was even alive. For about 7 months I thought she was dead. She was a fighter.

Rick walks up next to me carrying Judith in his arms. I looked up at him.

Beth began singing. She sings songs that I usually have never heard. I wasn't much into country.

I smiled. Her voice was so calming.

Rick left my side and handed Carol Judith.

"When there's nothing left to keep you here, When you're falling behind in this big blue world," Beth sang.

"You got to hold on, Hold on, Got to hold on, Take my hand, I'm standing right here, Got to hold on," she sang.

Rick came back to my side.

"I'm going on a run. I'll head out tomorrow." He said.

"I'll take Michonne." He adds.

I looked up at him.

"You sure that's a good idea?" I asked.

"I'll find out." He replied.

"And Carl. He's ready." He added.

It's about time.

"Daryl will hold it down while I'm gone." He said.

"Alright." I said.

I stared at him for a moment.

He kissed my temple.

I looked up at him and smiled. God I'm so happy right now.


	28. Chapter 28

**You guys I have over 4000 views on my fanfic :') I love you all(x**

* * *

"I don't know how Carl will take it." Rick says.

"It'll be fine. Besides he accidentally called me mom a few times." I said with a smirk.

I was standing in Rick's cell in my pajamas. He was getting ready to go on a run with Michonne and Carl.

Rick turns to me.

"Has he now?" He asks.

I laugh.

"Yeah he has. It was awkward and he apologized." I said.

He takes a few steps closer to me.

I smiled and put my arms around his neck.

"You can tell him while you're in the car or something. And I'm pretty sure the rest of the group will catch on." I said.

He looked down.

I sighed.

"When I first came to your group I never thought I'd end up with you." I said.

He let out a small smile.

He looked back up at me and kissed my lips tenderly.

_There's that lotto feeling again._

I smiled into the kiss.

I pulled away slowly.

"Have fun." I said as I walked out of his prison cell.

* * *

By now I was already dressed up in my usual clothing. Rick, Carl, and Michonne had left a while ago.

I think it's time I told Hershel about the dream I had. Maybe he could find out what it meant since google is no longer in service. Or what if he saw me as a threat to Beth? Nah Hershel's cool. He'll understand.

Hopefully.

I walked out of my prison cell.

Hershel was sitting down on the metal bench. His crutches next to him.

I took a deep breath.

I walked over to him.

"Hershel I need to tell you something." I said.

He looked up at me.

"Take a seat Rachel." He said.

Ok. If it made things easier.

I went around the table and plopped myself down on the empty space next to him.

There was a few moments of silence before he finally spoke up.

"I told you." He said.

Huh.

"Told me what?" I asked.

"I told you about Rick. At the bar." He said.

The bar. The bar. The bar? The bar. Oh yeah! The bar.

I smiled.

"I guess we did end up as something." I said.

He nods.

"What was it you wanted to tell me?" He asked.

Oh shit. My stomach got fluttery. Moment of truth.

"Well, a couple of days ago I had this dream," I began.

I glanced over at Beth who paid no attention to me. She was cradling and playing with baby Judith.

My palms began to sweat.

"It was about me and Beth...and an axe." I said. I swallowed.

He turned to me. He didn't respond. Fuck I probably should of kept that dream to myself.

He didn't say anything.

"I'm no expert but dreaming about homicide signifies your loss over your own self control." He finally says.

What? I'm not losing it. Am I?

No no no no no.

"No you don't understand her blood was on my hands." I said sternly.

"I know it'll never happen but...it was horrible I-I-I don't want to be that way." I said a little louder.

"Rachel-"

"No! I killed her! I had the power not to but I did it anyway!" I yelled.

A few heads turned.

A tear slipped.

I got up from my seat.

"What's going on?" Jen asked.

Another tear fell.

"It's a dream Rachel." Hershel said.

"No! I'm not a murderer!" I yelled.

Carol's eyes were on me now. Along with Beth's and Maggie's. Glenn and Daryl were on perimeter watch.

"I'm not a killer." I said, voice cracking.

Nobody said anything.

I pulled out the gun of my hostler and positioned it next to my head.

"Rachel put the the gun down." Maggie says motioning with my hands.

"Stop this." Hershel says.

I let another tear fall.

"No," I choked out.

"I know none of you will do it so I'll do it myself. It's the only way I can keep myself from doing something stupid." I said with tears running down my face.

"Rachel what you're doing right now is stupid. Now put the gun down." Jen says.

She takes a step closer to me slowly.

I looked over at Beth who looked a little scared. Judith was being held tightly in her arms.

I closed my eyes.

Nope not today. It's just a dream. It's just a dream. I can control myself.

I took a deep breath and opened my eyes.

"Put it down." Jen said slowly.

I let one more tear fall before I slowly handed her the gun.

"Okay." She said.

"Okay." I replied.

I sniffled.

"Go to your cell block. I'll be with you in a minute with some pills okay?" She said.

Another tear fell.

"Okay, okay." I said.

She nodded.

It's all gonna be just fine. It's just a stupid dream.

* * *

**Sorry for the short chapter:( my mom bought new furniture and today we had to move it all in ugh ;0 and tomorrow we're putting in a new table and bunk bed so idk when I'll post the next chapter. $:**


	29. Chapter 29

**Sorry it took forever to update. It's a looooong story but hope you guys like it, I had to rewrite...8)**

* * *

Today was the day. Rick and the governor were going to meet and talk. Hopefully they would settle at good terms and nobody else was going to have to die. Right now Hershel, Rick, Daryl and I were on our way to an isolated part of the city to meet the governor. It was Andrea's idea anyway.

Rick found out about my 'suicide attempt' and we had a long discussion where I ended up sharing more than I should have. That defiantly made us closer. Which was good because we are a thing now right? Aren't we supposed to get to know each other? Even he shared some memories. Some stories about Shane and Carl and his childhood. I maybe got a little too personal but at least he knows.?

_What late night conversations did to people._

I looked outside my open car window not wanting to think about what happened the other day. Broken windows and rusted cars filled the small town.

I sighed.

The car began to slow down. As soon as it came to a stop my window rolled back up automatically.

"Let's go." Rick says in a calming tone.

Daryl adjusted his crossbow and closed the car door gently as he got out of the car.

"You got your shotgun and knife?" Rick asks me.

I nodded and flashed him a glimpse of my fully loaded shotgun.

"Stay put." He says to Hershel and I as he pushes the door shut.

Daryl takes lead as he and Rick disappear behind grain silos.

Hershel and I stayed in the car in silence.

Yup.

Maybe I should apologize for what happened the day before yesterday. That was so stupid of me.

I opened the car door. I closed it behind me. I sat myself down in the drivers seat. I turned to Hershel.

Well here goes nothing.

"I'm sorry." I say.

He turns to me.

"For everything. I didn't mean for it to get out of hand like that." I said looking forward.

He didn't respond. I closed my eyes. Dammit.

"Next time keep your dreams to yourself." He says with a soothing tone.

Was that it? Really Hershel? Ehh it's better than nothing. I flashed a small smile.

"Okay." I said.

Thank god that was settled. Now I had another tiny problem that I'd like to discuss with and only Hershel and right now that it was just the two of us, made it perfect.

My smile faded.

"Okay so, the governor has his own team...and one of them happens to be...my ex fiancée." I said.

He turns to me. I had told him abbot him and the backstory back at the bar a few months back.

"Have you told Rick?" He asks.

"No. And I'm not going to. This is my fight." I said

And I meant it. He had made me feel an intense heartbreak. He brought out an evil side of me. I've been doing my best to get rid of it.

Before Hershel says anything Daryl comes up next to my window.

"He's already in there. Sat down with Rick." He says.

It's already happening. All I could do now was hope for the rest.

Hershel looks forward.

"I don't see any cars." He says.

"It don't feel right." Daryl says.

He looks around for a moment.

"Keep it running." He adds.

We hear car engine rumbling across the street.

"Heads up." Daryl says as he taps the hood of the car.

The car comes up the driveway and parks a few feet in front of us.

A man in glasses hops out of the back along with Andrea then the driver then satan himself...Lance.

"What the hell? Why's your boy already in there?" Daryl asks with his crossbow in his hands.

Hershel and I step out of the car and stand next to Daryl. I positioned my shotgun in my hands.

"He's here?" Andrea asks with confusion.

"Yup."

She exchanges looks with the other men with the governor.

She slides the door from the shed open and disappears as she slams it shut.

None of us spoke a word a fee that. Tension rose on all of us. Lance kept a sharp glare on me.

He would occasionally glance over at the other men that came with him.

Hopefully Rick and the governor would settle things so I wouldn't have to see him anymore.

"Maybe I should go inside." Hershel suggests.

"The Governor thought it best if he and Rick spoke privately." The one in glasses replies.

"Who the hell are you?" Daryl asks taking a step closer to him.

"Milton Mamet."

"Great. He brought his butler." Daryl comments.

Small laughter rings in the air.

Milton adjusts his glasses.

"I'm his advisor." He says.

"What kind of advice?" I asked, even though I really wasn't all that interested.

"Planning. Biters. Uh, you know, I'm sorry. I don't feel like I need to explain myself to the henchmen." Milton replies.

I raised an eyebrow.

"You better watch your mouth sunshine." Daryl warns.

Lance shifts in his spot.

"Look, if you and I are gonna be out here pointing guns at each other all day, do me a favor, shut your mouth." He says to Daryl.

Daryl walks up to him so there faces were inches apart. You could swim through the tension between them.

"We don't need this." Hershel says.

"If all goes south in there, we'll be at each other's throats soon enough." He adds.

Daryl walks back to my side.

Daryl and Lance kept a death glare on each other. This situation was so awkward. I wish I could poof away. At least he didn't try to talk to me or make it obvious that he's trying to get my attention.

The driver turns his attention to me. He didn't look to old. He looked like he was maybe in his early thirties.

He looked at me up and down. I cringed. Hell no.

Then the shed door slides open revealing a pissed off looking Andrea. She slams the alley doors behind her. I'm judging by that reaction that it's not going as planned ok there with Rick and the governor.

She sits herself down on a wooden crate in front of the shed. She sighs.

I slowly walked to Hershel and whispered, "That's him. With the tan jacket and teared jeans."

He turned his attention in his direction.

I walked over back next to Daryl.

Milton takes a few steps closer to our group members.

"There's no reason not to use this time we have together to explore the issues ourselves." He says.

"Boss said to sit tight and shut up." The driver comments.

"Don't you mean the Governor?" Daryl asks.

"It's a good thing they're sitting down, especially after what happened. They're gonna work it out. Nobody wants another battle." Milton continues, ignoring Daryl.

"I wouldn't exactly call it a battle." I say. I mean come on we totally knocked them on their asses.

"I would call it a battle and I did. I recorded it." Milton interjects. He takes out a journal from his back pocket.

That was actually not a bad idea. Maybe I should start writing.

"For what?" Daryl asks.

"Somebody's got to keep a record of what we've gone through. It'll be a part of our history." Milton replies.

Maybe I should write a journal. I'd like to be on some kid's textbook 50 years from now.

"That makes sense." Hershel comments.

"I've got dozens of interviews-" Milton begins but gets cut off by the snarling of walkers across the street.

We all quickly react and grab our quiet weapons.

We jogged across the street and we stopped in front of a sea of silos.

"After you." Daryl says to Lance.

"No way. You first." He responds.

Andrea and I exchange a look in annoyance. We push through the men. I take a walker by its shoulders and pin it against the metal wall as it growls and snarls. I take my knife and shove it right between its eyes.

"Pussy." He says to Daryl.

The driver takes his metal baseball bat and destroys the head of the walker next to me. The blood splatters on my pants and jacket.

I take another walker and quickly burry it into another dead brain before I feel my arm being tugged. My back hits a silo as I separated from my group.

Lance has me pinned.

"We need to talk." He says.

I try to break free from his grasp but he only tightens his hands on my shoulders.

"I have nothing to say to you." I spit out.

"I still love you. I always will." He said.

I rolled my eyes. Please.

"You need me. I can protect you. We could make it on our own together. Just the two of us. " He continues.

"I don't need you." I said coldly.

I try to break free again before he pushes me back on the silo.

"You found someone else then? Hm is that it?" He asks.

Oh my fucking god.

"Is it the old guy? Is it the archer is it someone back at your prison?" He asks.

With every word he spoke it lead me closer and closer to smacking the shit out of him.

"Is it the leader?"

"It's none of your business." I said.

He laughed dryly.

"I will kill them. If that's what it takes." He said desperately.

I broke free from his grasp and this time he didn't try to grab me again.

I'm not going anywhere this asshole.

* * *

We get back to everyone in front of the shed right when Rick and the governor are exiting the shed.

The governor walks to his side and Rick walks to ours.

No one speaks a word. I'm guessing things are even worse now.

I sighed.

I gave Lance one last look before entering he back seats.

* * *

Rick stood on the prison stairs, ready to announce what had gone down with the governor. We all crowed him below. He exchanged a look with Hershel before starting.

"So, I met this Governor," He starts.

"Sat with him for quite a while." He adds.

"Just the two of you?" Merle asks from behind us. Then I noticed that Rick had left Merle with Michonne and nothing had happened.

"Yeah."

"Should have gone when we had the chance, bro." Merle says as he pats Glenn on the shoulder.

Glenn shakes of his hand in annoyance with his shoulder.

"He wants the prison. He wants us gone. Dead." Rick continues.

That makes sense.

"He wants us dead for what we did to Woodbury." He says.

A heavy feeling falls on the group. He eyed all of us. We were a strong group but taking on a human threat was a completely different story.

"We're going to war."


	30. Chapter 30

**Short chapter sorry Dx but the next chapter involves a girl named Andrea who just dies idk**

* * *

"Hey Carl." I piped nervously as I entered his cell.

He was sitting cross legged on his bed reading a comic book. He tore his eyes in my direction as soon as I had called him.

I thought it was time we talked about ...his father and I.

I slowly walked over to his bed and sat at the end.

I exhaled.

"Okay I'm just gonna jump right to it." I began.

He put his book down and straightened his back against the wall.

I turned to him.

"Look I'm never gonna replace your mom. But you know...I really like your dad. I know you're still little-"

"I'm 13."

"Right. Forgot. Anyways this is kind of an adult thing." I said.

It had been a week and a half since Rick told Carl and just know I had the nerve to come say something. I was tired of the awkward conversations.

He hasn't responded. Did I word that out correctly?

"I'm not sure how long this will go on. I could die tomorrow or get kidnapped or anything." I said.

"This is obviously going to change things between us but please don't start calling me mom." I added.

He let out a small laugh.

"Okay." He said.

"I understand."

Yes. I smiled.

"Okay." I replied.

I stood back up and waved one last goodbye before leaving his cell. I'm surprised of how he took it. I thought there'd be yelling. But no, it went great actually.

I felt really relieved and happy.

Now time to go take a great relaxing nap.

* * *

**My best friend has a fanfic idea about twd idk I might let her post it on my fanfic page :-) and aww Chandler and Hanna :')**


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